Like the King ran himself right into the Kentucky Derby with a one-length victory Saturday in the Grade 3, $250,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky. Ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, Like the King rallied from eighth in a field of 11 3-year-olds to earn the 100 Kentucky Derby qualifying points awarded to the Jeff Ruby winner. The chestnut Palace Malice colt is trained by Wesley Ward for the M Racing Group of Mickey Gonzalez. “We went back and watched some replays of this horse and thought he doesn’t really like to be up in the race,” Van Dyke told Turfway publicity afterward. “It ended up working out well for us.” Like the King earned a 86 Beyer Speed Figure when finishing the 1 1/8-mile distance in 1:50.22 over the Tapeta synthetic surface. The colt had been second in the local prep, the Feb. 26 Battaglia Memorial, and has raced only once over dirt during a six-race career, finishing second in a Belterra Park sprint with a 38 Beyer in his career debut last July. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2021: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Sainthood, ridden by Gerardo Corrales, was up in the last couple of jumps to get second by a head over Hockey Dad, thereby earning 40 Derby points. Sainthood is trained by Todd Pletcher for the partnership of WinStar Racing and China Horse Club. Pletcher won the Florida Derby for a record sixth time Saturday at Gulfstream Park with Known Agenda. WinStar president Elliott Walden said early Sunday that Sainthood, who was coming off a nose victory in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Fair Grounds in February, is a “maybe” for the May 1 Derby. “We’ll see how he comes out of it.” Like the King and Sainthood both will be stabled at Keeneland for the immediate future. The spring meet at the Lexington, Ky., track starts Friday. Moonlite Strike led through the first six furlongs of the Jeff Ruby, which has been known by a variety of names through its 50-year history, but then four of his rivals went past before they reached the quarter pole. Meanwhile, Sainthood was saving ground from just behind that swarming pack, and Corrales shifted him to an outer path just as Like the King was under way with an outside run of his own. With a little more than a furlong to go, as Sainthood was forced to check behind a tiring Hard Rye Guy, Like the King swept past them all with clear sailing. He paid $16 as fourth choice. Corrales filed an objection against the winner, but it was clear that his traffic trouble was caused by Hard Rye Guy, and the Turfway stewards made no change to the order. Like the King, bred in Kentucky by Horseshoe Racing LLC, was a $170,000 yearling purchase by Gonzalez, a Puerto Rico native who has owned such stakes winners as Who’s Up and Tonito M. under his M Racing banner. “We spaced out some of his races, and I think it’s helped because he’s a big, rangy colt,” Ward said. “He’s always showed an affinity for grass, and that’s why we kept him on the Tapeta surface this winter with this race in mind.” Ward has won 1,979 races in his 30-year training career but has never had a Derby starter. He could have run Pablo del Monte off the also-eligibles list in the 2014 running, but the colt would have had to start from post 20 and the decision was made to scratch him. Tarantino, the 5-2 favorite, was the biggest disappointment of the race. The colt bobbled at the start, losing several lengths, then never found his stride when falling far behind. Jockey Florent Geroux ultimately eased him. Gretzky the Great, the 3-1 second choice, was among the pack who sped past Moonlite Strike when turning for home, but he flattened out to finish fifth. Hush of a Storm, the Battaglia winner over Like the King, was an early scratch from an original lineup of 12. Trainer Bill Morey said the colt will run instead this coming Saturday in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Unlike in previous years, when just 20 qualifying points were awarded to the winner of the Turfway signature race, the race took on far more meaning this year with the additional point values. Churchill Downs Inc. bought Turfway in fall 2019. Two winners of the Jeff Ruby have gone on to win the Derby. Lil E. Tee pulled the double in 1992, when Turfway still had a dirt track, and Animal Kingdom did it in 2011, when Turfway was using Polytrack.