Quality and quantity mark fields in Derby day's supporting stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Supported by six graded stakes races that precede the Kentucky Derby, three of them Grade 1's, a 14-race card featuring some of the top racehorses in training was drawn Tuesday afternoon for Derby Day on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Chief among these stakes is the $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic, a 1 1/8-mile grass race that goes immediately before the Derby and that attracted 13 entrants, including three trained by Chad Brown: Raging Bull, Ticonderoga, and Bricks And Mortar.

The latter, a winner of more than $3 million who took the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf and Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap earlier this year, is likely to go favored, though his margin for error appears minimal. In addition to his stablemates, he faces tests from Markitoff and Synchrony, second and third behind him, respectively, in the Muniz – and from Maker’s 46 Mile runner-up Clyde’s Image and that race’s third-place finisher, Qurbaan.

The other Grade 1's are seven-furlong dirt sprints, one for males, the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes, where Limousine Liberal aims to win the race for the third straight year, and the other for females, the $500,000 Humana Distaff, which has the shortest stakes field of the day with seven.

Despite limited depth, the Humana Distaff has some of the top female dirt sprinters in the country, notably Marley’s Freedom and Spiced Perfection. It is the first stakes of the day, going off as race 6.

The Churchill Downs, upgraded from Grade 2 status this year, attracted an array of runners. Eight horses raced last in the April 6 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland, where Bobby’s Wicked One, Warrior’s Club, and Limousine Liberal were the top three finishers in order, but others are invaders. Do Share won the Tom Fool at Aqueduct on March 9; Mitole and Whitmore ran one-two in the Count Fleet at Oaklawn on April 13; and Promises Fulfilled was fourth in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai in late March.

Besides the Derby, 3-year-old males race in a couple of other stakes: The Grade 2 American Turf at 1 1/16 miles and the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile on the main track, both stacked. 13 horses were entered in American Turf, and the Pat Day Mile drew an overflow field with 14 plus an also-eligible.

In addition to his strong hand in the Old Forester, Brown is well represented in the remaining stakes on the day: the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile. There, he runs Precieuse and Environs at a distance over which the pair excel.

Defending champion Proctor’s Ledge and Grade 1-placed runners Daddy Is a Legend and Got Stormy are other logical threats in the race.

Stakes are not the only noteworthy races at Churchill on Saturday. Also on the day are four allowances, one of which is topped by Hidden Scroll, the beaten favorite from the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby, who seeks to reboot going seven furlongs in the fourth race, a first-level contest.

First post on Derby Day is 10:30 a.m. ET. The Humana Distaff kicks off the stake action at 1:13 p.m., more than five hours before the Derby goes at 6:50.

The long-term weather outlook calls for a threat of showers leading up to and including Derby Day. As of late afternoon on Tuesday, The National Weather Service called for mostly cloudy skies and a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday with a high temperature of 73 degrees.