Final preps may not add clarity to Derby picture
Racing fans will scrutinize Saturday’s Wood, Santa Anita Derby, and Illinois Derby, plus other major preps next week, but it's likely the Derby picture will not be clearer.
Andrew BeyerApr 07, 2011
Racing fans will scrutinize Saturday’s Wood, Santa Anita Derby, and Illinois Derby, plus other major preps next week, but it's likely the Derby picture will not be clearer.
The Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Saturday took a one-two punch this week when Premier Pegasus, the favorite, and top contender Jaycito were withdrawn.
The Kentucky Derby Future Wager parimutuel pools are behind us, but with less than a month until the first Saturday in May, there are still bets to be made in the fixed-odds futures.
Apriority has evolved into an absolute running fool and is the play in Saturday's Carter Handicap at Aqueduct even if he doesn’t have some of the obvious class lines others in here have.
Anonymous a month ago, Watch Me Go looks like the favorite in a wacky edition of the Grade 3, $300,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne.
The Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes already is being touted as wide-open, and there is a possibility a full gate of 14 could contest the annual spring showcase at Keeneland next Saturday, April 16.
On Saturday, the crowd at Aqueduct will likely get to appreciate the effortless manner in which Uncle Mo does things when he will be heavily favored to demolish his nine opponents in the Grade 1 Wood, this circuit’s major stepping-stone to the May 7 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. A victory in the Wood, run at 1 1/8 miles over the main track, would make Uncle Mo 5 for 5 and send him to Louisville as the prohibitive favorite for the 137th Run for the Roses.
Bob Baffert must have the source code, because he keeps going in for more. It’s a month before the Kentucky Derby, and, like seemingly every spring, here he is with a couple of top contenders, this year’s models being Jaycito and The Factor. Yes, there are some familiar names among trainers on the Derby trail every year, but since his first appearance in 1996, Baffert has been the most consistent in terms of achievement.
Trainer Todd Pletcher is off to a roaring start in 2011, but an illness to his daughter was a reminder that family comes first.
The owners of Florida Derby runner-up Shackleford could be Kentucky Derby-bound thanks to a mare they purchased together in 2006.