Oaklawn Park will put on one of the most significant programs of its meet next Saturday with champion Untapable expected to make her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Azeri and champions American Pharoah and Take Charge Brandi on schedule to meet in the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel Stakes.
The one-week postponement of last Saturday’s Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes due to heavy rain caused trainer Bill Mott to change his plans for Grade 3 winner Dubai Sky.
If El Kabeir is to be considered a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender, he will have to bounce back from his loss in the Withers when he faces nine mostly new faces in the Gotham, which like the Withers is run at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track.
It took several starts for Prospect Park to finally get the hang of what he was supposed to do, but once he figured it out, he came around quickly, and now ranks as one of the most-intriguing Kentucky Derby prospects in Southern California.
Ocean Knight and Carpe Diem both will carry the Stonestreet Stables silks when starting alongside each other in posts 2 and 3, respectively, among a field of eight 3-year-olds in the 35th running of the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
The Tampa Bay Derby is certainly the best betting race of the stakes for 3-year-olds. Carpe Diem is going to be favored off his excellent 2-year-old season, with a 91 in the Breeders’ Futurity and 93 when second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Love the bloodlines, but the horse has not been out in four months and his Juvenile is not as good as it looks.
The projected different pace scenario is why I like Chitu in Saturday’s San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita.
Ocean Knight is by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, who is clearly injecting some stamina into his offspring.
The Grade 2 Swale, postponed a week after heavy rain forced the cancellation of the second half of last Saturday’s program, will lose one of its major players when the field finally does go to post this Saturday.
If history is a fair gauge, Carpe Diem will run well Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby – but won’t win.
