Trainer Tim Yakteen has been thrust into the Kentucky Derby spotlight, having been selected by the partnership that campaigns the top contender Messier – as well as Armagnac – to prepare them for the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, and potentially the Kentucky Derby, those horses having been transferred owing to Bob Baffert's 90-day suspension that began Monday.
A Thursday to Saturday wagering window that will close before any prep races are run this weekend is a new wrinkle being presented by Churchill Downs with the fifth and final pool in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager. Pool 5 opens Thursday at noon Eastern and will close Saturday at 4:30 p.m., before the Wood Memorial, Blue Grass Stakes, and Santa Anita Derby are run soon thereafter.
White Abarrio adores Gulfstream Park. He won the track’s signature race for 3-year-olds to run his record to 4 for 4 at the place where he is based. He now moves on to the Derby, at Churchill Downs, site of the only loss of his career, in the Kentucky Jockey Club last fall.
With White Abarrio’s victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is assured of having one runner in this year’s Kentucky Derby. On Saturday, in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, Joseph will see if he can add to his roster for the May 7 Derby at Churchill Downs.
Cyberknife, a work in progress all season for trainer Brad Cox, put his best foot forward to date in his final Derby prep, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure and enough points to guarantee a spot in the starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 7.
Cyberknife for the first time in his career has won back-to-back races, owing to his Arkansas Derby victory on Saturday, in which he earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 92, and his trainer, Brad Cox, is hoping he’s got another forward move in him five weeks hence in the Kentucky Derby.
Cyberknife picked up 100 points for the Kentucky Derby with his powerful, 2 3/4-length win in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
White Abarrio missed some training time due to a temperature, but his stretch run Saturday was right on time, as he rallied past Simplification in deep stretch and held off a run from an inexperienced Charge It to win Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby by 1 1/4 lengths.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals on Friday declined to issue an emergency injunction that would have stayed a 90-day suspension handed down by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to trainer Bob Baffert, setting in motion the start of the penalty on Monday.
McLaren Vale, third in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes in February, will miss the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 9, leaving the highly regarded Messier as trainer Tim Yakteen's lone starter in the $750,000 race
