Like the NCAA basketball tournament, the road to the Kentucky Derby has its own version of March Madness, with the regionals last weekend in Louisiana, Florida, and Dubai. This week, attention turns to California and New York, then next week to Kentucky and Arkansas. Call it April Anxiety.
Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct may be Normandy Invasion’s last chance to make the Kentucky Derby, but it could be the first serious opportunity for his trainer, Chad Brown, to make it to America’s most prestigious horse race.
It may be too early to give up on Super Ninety Nine following his disappointing fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 16. A good performance in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby puts him right back on many Kentucky Derby watch lists.
Power Broker, unraced since a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November, worked a half-mile in 47.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, his final major workout before a start in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
Trainer Shug McGaughey reported that Orb came out of his win in Florida Derby as sharp as he went in and that all systems are go for the Hall of Fame trainer’s second Kentucky Derby bid in the last 24 years.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said he would evaluate Palace Malice, a troubled seventh in the Louisiana Derby, over the next week to determine whether or not to try and earn a spot in the Kentucky Derby by running in a race like the Blue Grass Stakes on April 13.
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Less than 13 hours after winning Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park aboard Orb, jockey John Velazquez was at the Palm Meadows training center Sunday morning to guide the undefeated 3-year-old Verrazano through his final workout leading up to next Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
Revolutionary took a significant step forward on Saturday, when he made a powerful, wide move on the final turn, then held off a pesky Mylute to win the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds.
Trainer Shug McGaughey was concerned when the meet began that the speed-favoring Gulfstream Park surface might not favor a late-running horse like Orb. But Orb put those fears to rest not once, not twice, but three times during the session, culminating a perfect winter in south Florida by rallying to victory in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby.
Power Broker has been something of a forgotten horse in recent months, even if he was a Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old last September. He can make up for lost time in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
