Passed Due carries win streak into Colorado Derby

Passed Due won Arapahoe Park’s richest race for 2-year-olds last year, the $100,000 Gold Rush Futurity. He will attempt to add another of the track’s marquee races to his résumé Sunday when he starts in the $40,000 Colorado Derby.

Passed Due will be chasing his third straight win when he runs in the 1 1/16-mile fixture for 3-year-olds. The Colorado Derby will share a card with two other stakes, the $40,000 Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association Futurity and the $148,950 Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Futurity.

The Colorado Derby drew a field of six horses, including the filly Colinda Dawn, who is coming off a win in the $40,000 George Wafer Memorial at Arapahoe, and Z Smoking Gun, who in May captured the track’s $40,000 Inaugural.

Colorado Derby (Race 7)

KEY CONTENDERS

Passed Due (Last 3 Beyers: 73-74-57)

He’s on top of his game, having won back-to-back allowances at Arapahoe. His streak started with a 10 1/2-length win over seven furlongs June 6. Passed Due made his two-turn debut one start later and was a 2 1/4-length winner of a one-mile race June 27.

Passed Due established himself as a runner of note last year at Arapahoe. He won a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race by 10 lengths in his debut May 31, then captured the Gold Rush.

Kelly Bridges has the mount on Passed Due, an Indiana-bred son of Pass Rush trained by Temple Rushton.

Z Smoking Gun (Last 3 Beyers: 69-68-62)

He became a stakes winner two starts ago in the Inaugural, a six-furlong race May 23. He set the pace over a tiring track and had more than enough left, scoring by 3 1/4 lengths.

Z Smoking Gun will remove blinkers after running second to Passed Due in the one-mile allowance at Arapahoe.

Z Smoking Gun is by Zensational and out of the stakes-winning mare In Her Glory, who was Grade 1-placed in New York.

R Dub favored in CTBA

R Dub, who won his maiden by 10 1/2 lengths at Arapahoe in his last start June 27, should start as the favorite in the CTBA Futurity. His chief rivals include Colorful Colorado, a half-brother to two past winners of the race, including Dance to the Star, who overall is a five-time stakes winner at Arapahoe.

◗ Three Olives N Smoke is chasing his fourth straight win Sunday in the Rocky Mountain Futurity. Earlier in the meet, he won the Cherry Creek Futurity.