The Triple Crown season starts for real this weekend. How do I know? Follow the money. On Saturday, at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes offers a purse of $500,000. On Sunday, just down the road from El Paso and across the New Mexico state line, there will be $800,000 up for grabs in the Sunland Park Derby. Is this a great country or what?
The Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Spiral will be renewed Saturday at Turfway amid a conspicuous hole on the national racing calendar, and, more importantly, with newfound respect.
Hansen will likely make his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Blue Grass rather than the Wood Memorial, his owner said Thursday. The news led trainer Kiaran McLaughlin to say Alpha will be shipped back to New York for the Wood rather than run in the Louisiana Derby.
Isn't He Clever showed a new dimension when he won the Borderland Derby over the track last time out and is the pick in Sunday's Sunland Derby.
No Spin, co-owned by Leonard Blach and trained by Tim Ice, is one of eight 3-year-olds set to start Sunday in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby.
There are no marquee names scheduled to run in the Grade 3, $500,000 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on Saturday, kind of like how it looked on the eve of the race last year. But, it turned out, those looks were an illusion.
Drill, the winner of two graded stakes for sprinters but winless in four races around two turns, is bound for the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 14.
There were no changes to the list of 20 horses on this week’s Derby Watch, but there was some adjustment to their rankings.
Doug O’Neill already has a leading candidate for the May 5 Kentucky Derby in I’ll Have Another, winner of the Grade 2 Robert Lewis Stakes last month at Santa Anita. But it never hurts a trainer to have a little backup.
Add Alpha’s name to the list of probable Louisiana Derby starters. Alpha, winner of the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct in his most recent start, had been under consideration for both the Wood Memorial and the Florida Derby in recent weeks, but now seems likely to ship to New Orleans from Florida next week.
