Bodemeister, the runner-up in the San Felipe Stakes on March 10, will make his next start in the $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 14, Jimmy Barnes, trainer Bob Baffert’s assistant said on Thursday
If the season continues on its surprisingly predictable path, a ticket on the field in any of the three pools in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager will be a loser.
Thoroughbred racing badly needs a 3-year-old star. The sport’s popularity – as everybody knows – has been declining for years. Racing gets minimal attention on network television, and it has disappeared from most sports pages during most of the year. And yet one part of the game remains remarkably strong: the Triple Crown series. The Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes still attract huge crowds and widespread media coverage.
As the final round of major Kentucky Derby preps begins, our analysts answer 10 questions about the top contenders and key races that have been run so far. What do you make of the two-month layoffs for Alpha and I'll Have Another? Did El Padrino's narrow win in the Risen Star mark him as a top contender? Watch replays of the key preps and find out the answers.
Finnegans Wake likes to gawk. The rawboned 3-year-old shipped from trainer Dale Romans’s base at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida to Fair Grounds on March 21. It was not until Wednesday morning during a routine gallop that he seemed to have really gotten used to the place.
As good as Union Rags ran last time out in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, trainer Michael Matz expects an even better performance Saturday, when Union Rags heads the field in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, which drew a field of nine Wednesday at Gulfstream Park.
Despie missing several days with a splint injury, Dullahan remains on target to have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the April 14 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.
As much as things can be normal with the boss in a hospital 12 times zones away, life around trainer Bob Baffert’s stable has continued this week.
With their lucrative victories over the weekend, both Daddy Nose Best, who won the Sunland Derby, and Went the Day Well, who captured the Spiral Stakes, muscled their way onto the Derby Watch top 20 this week.
Union Rags drew post 6 and El Padrino post 8 when a field of nine was entered Wednesday for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
