Trainer Ken McPeek had to rush off and catch a flight to Kentucky on Friday morning, but he left town with a big smile on his face after watching his Florida Derby hopeful, Frac Daddy, work five furlongs in 1:00.24 about an hour earlier.
The Louisiana Derby, Fair Grounds Oaks, New Orleans Handicap, and Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap have been good to trainer Todd Pletcher. He and the late Bobby Frankel are the only trainers who have won all four.
Saturday's Spiral at Turfway lured a deep and interesting field, but it’s not filled with the kind of horses we’ve grown to expect in this race. Sunday's Sunland Derby has Bob Baffert trainees Shakin It Up and Govenor Charlie along with local hope Dry Summer.
Vyjack, the undefeated 3-year-old, turned in a sensational five-furlong workout Friday morning at Aqueduct in preparation for a start in the $1 million Wood Memorial here on April 6.
As the only graded stakes winner in the field, Shakin It Up is the most accomplished horse in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday at Sunland Park, but he will be making his first start around two turns while coming out of a race whose form is debatable.
The Sunland Derby will be run after Pool 3 of the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby Future Wager closes on Sunday. Shakin It Up, the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Sunland Derby, is the only runner in that race who is also an individual betting interest in Pool 3, so if you like his chances of winning, your Pool 3 Kentucky Derby futures odds cannot be bet down after the race if he is successful.
Always in a Tiz, who had spent about a month at Oaklawn Park, was held out of last week’s Rebel Stakes because his connections felt he wasn’t quite himself. Back home in New York, Always in a Tiz showed signs of life Thursday morning when he worked four furlongs in 48.27 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
Sunland Derby favorite Shakin It Up was one of six horses who flew into New Mexico on Thursday morning to be part of a Sunday program of seven stakes worth more than $1.4 million, the richest card of the meet at Sunland Park.
Capo Bastone, coming off a narrow victory in a first-level, two-turn allowance over the Gulfstream Park slop, will break from post 12 in Saturday's Spiral Stakes.
Trainer Mark Casse hit a detour that has led him to Turfway Park, where on Saturday the track’s showcase event will serve as a critical test for Uncaptured and 11 other Derby hopefuls.
