Like gunslingers inexorably moving toward one another for an old-fashioned shootout, Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher have been dominating the 3-year-old preps this year. As a result, each trainer has four runners on this week’s top 20 list of Derby Watch, Baffert doubling his total from a week ago because of subsequent victories by Castaway and Secret Circle in divisions of the Southwest Stakes.
Bob Baffert swept divisions of the Southwest Stakes on Monday with Castaway and Secret Circle, both of whom earned berths on the Derby Watch top 20 list this week as a result.
Adirondack King, who shipped in Oaklawn from Florida for trainer John Servis, closed from ninth for third in the second division of the on Monday. He finished six lengths behind Secret Circle and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.
Scatman, who finished a half-length behind Secret Circle in second in the Southwest, will likely make his next start in the Rebel, his trainer, Mike Lauer, said on Tuesday.
After sweeping both divisions of the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on Monday, trainer Bob Baffert said he will be back for the track’s Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel on March 17. The question is with whom?
The atmosphere around the Larry Jones barn on Tuesday morning at Fair Grounds was decidedly more calm than the morning previous, and that was not just because everyone had wandered off to watch Zulu and Rex, the major Mardi Gras Day parades, roll down into the French Quarter. Monday was a major work day in the Jones barn, with all three of his 3-year-olds intended for Saturday stakes races in action, making Tuesday a quieter walk day for many of the horses.
Trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Rafael Bejarano swept both divisions of the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Monday, after Secret Circle drove to about a three-quarter-length win over Scatman. One race earlier, Castaway took the first division, by 3 3/4 lengths. Both races carried Grade 3 status, and the purse for each was $250,000.
A day after Drill won his second stakes in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said no plans have been made for the colt’s next start, but that races around one turn, particularly at a mile, will be given extra consideration.
My Adonis may not get the ink, but he showed in his third-place Holy Bull finish that he is a 3-year-old on the improve
Trainer Todd Pletcher took a slightly different approach on Monday morning to get his two undefeated 3-year-olds Algorithms and Discreet Dancer to the same place, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
