El Padrino was given a clean bill of health following his fourth-place finish in last Saturday's Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park and will continue to point to the Kentucky Derby, his connections said Thursday.
Gemologist will most likely need a top-two finish in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct to make it into the field for this year’s Kentucky Derby on May 5. It could take more than $225,000 to get into this year’s Derby field, and none of the eight horses in the Wood has more than $180,000 entering the race.
Even after losing last weekend in the Florida Derby, Union Rags is the 7-2 favorite in the future book for the Kentucky Derby at Wynn Las Vegas.
Chances are likely that either Gemologist or Alpha will win Saturday’s Wood Memorial, and Creative Cause is the most logical winner of the Santa Anita Derby. However, that doesn’t make them great wagers -- 3-year-olds are apt to make sudden improvements this time of year, resulting in surprising stakes upsets. This Saturday, my rule to betting the major Kentucky Derby preps is simple: no favorites.
Creative Cause will be wearing No. 1 when he enters the gate for the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, an appropriate designation for the colt who has been the West Coast’s top-ranked Kentucky Derby prospect for months.
In the 23 years since Santa Anita Derby winner Sunday Silence and Wood winner Easy Goer ran one-two in the Derby, the winners of those two races have combined to go 1 for 34 in the Kentucky Derby.Here's a tepid vote that this is a run of bad luck and a statistical anomaly.
Mid-Atlantic-based trainer Mike Trombetta came to Hawthorne Race Course in 2006 with a relatively unproven 3-year-old named Sweetnorthernsaint. The questions being asked of Hakama, Trombetta’s entrant in Saturday’s Illinois Derby, are the same as were asked of Sweetnorthernsaint: Can he get the distance? Is he good enough?
Owner Paul Reddam's unorthodox plan meets its moment of truth Saturday, when I'll Have Another will need a big run in the Santa Anita Derby to make the Kentucky Derby field.
Seventeen 3-year-olds were entered Wednesday for Saturday's Grade 3, $500,000 Illinois Derby, among the last graded stakes races before the May 5 Kentucky Derby, entry into which is determined by graded stakes earnings.
Though Bob McNair no longer maintains the presence he once did in Thoroughbred racing, the sport is never far from his consciousness. While he is preoccupied this week with meetings for the upcoming NFL draft, McNair, owner of the Houston Texans franchise, will take time out Saturday afternoon to watch Street Life run in the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
