The connections of Swale Stakes winner Trinniberg are more likely to point to the Preakness Stakes than the Kentucky Derby, owner Shivananda Parbhoo said Monday. Toward that end, Parbhoo chose to run his 3-year-old in Saturday’s $250,000 Bay Shore at seven furlongs as opposed to the Illinois Derby at 1 1/8 miles.
The connections of Tiger Walk could have shipped their 3-year-old to Hawthorne this weekend if they were looking for an easier spot in which to try to accrue enough graded stakes earnings to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.
Upset wins by Take Charge Indy in the Florida Derby, Daddy Long Legs in the United Arab Emirates Derby, and Hero of Order in the Louisiana Derby this past weekend left the pecking order of contenders for the May 5 Kentucky Derby less defined than it was a week ago, created great debate over the performances of horses and riders involved in those races, and caused considerable upheaval on the graded stakes earnings list.
It’s around this point on the Kentucky Derby trail that we separate the men from the boys, at least from a graded earnings standpoint. Potential is sometimes eclipsed by cold hard cash.
Bob Baffert will have three runners in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, but his roster may not be known until entries are taken on Wednesday.
Evidently, the siren call of the Kentucky Derby has become more alluring than ever. The prospective field for the Grade 2, $500,000 Illinois Derby this Saturday is bursting at the seams as the connections of 3-year-olds with even a hint of ability scramble for last-second graded earnings that might secure a Derby berth.
A 3-year-old colt named Hero of Order was making his ninth start of the Fair Grounds season Sunday. It came in the $1 million Louisiana Derby. And Hero of Order, a 109-1 shot, won it by a half-length, giving trainer Gennadi Dorochenko one of the most unlikely successes of recent racing history. Hero of Order’s $220.80 win mutuel was the highest in Louisiana Derby history.
Working for the first time since his second-place finish in the Palm Beach Stakes, Dullahan breezed five furlongs in 1:02.19 shortly after the first renovation break Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
Take Charge Indy, Union Rags, and El Padrino all emerged from Saturday’s Florida Derby in good shape, their respective trainers said Sunday morning, and all will be pointed to the May 5 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Racing fans were undeterred by Union Rags being defeated Saturday as an odds-on choice in the Florida Derby when settling on the colt as a lukewarm 9-2 favorite in the third and final pool of the 2012 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday after the customary three-day run.
