$200,000 Sam Davis Stakes, Feb. 11, 2023 [20 qualifying points for first, 8 for second, 6 for third, 4 for fourth, and 2 for fifth] Winner: Litigate, by Blame Trainer: Todd Pletcher Jockey: Luis Saez Owner: Centennial Farms Distance / time: 1 1/16 miles / 1:44.83 Win margin: 1 1/4 Beyer: 77  If you already harbored doubts about the quality of this crop of 3-year-olds, the Sam Davis did nothing to assuage them. On the other hand, that should hardly come as a surprise: One has to go all the way back to 2006 to find a Sam Davis winner who played any real role in the Kentucky Derby. That horse, Bluegrass Cat, finished second in the Derby and was trained by Todd Pletcher, whose seventh Sam Davis win came Saturday with LITIGATE.   Litigate was one of four horses in the Sam Davis starting gate with only one win on their resumes, and three finished in the top four: GROVELAND, a narrow-margin Tampa maiden winner two races back and more recently second in a four-horse Tampa allowance race managed second, while CLASSIC LEGACY, coming off a one-turn maiden win in New York, lost a show photo to CLASSIC CAR WASH and was fourth. As for Classic Car Wash, he had won a restricted maiden on Gulfstream dirt and a first-level, two-turn Tapeta race there this winter. Litigate, to be clear, had done little more than those horses, winning an Aqueduct maiden sprint at first asking before finishing a fading, distant second in a Gulfstream one-turn mile allowance.   :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2023: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Combine the winner’s form with that of the horses behind him, a no-show from race favorite DUBYUHNELL, and the very low Beyer, and it’s hard to think this was more than a weak Derby prep.  Luis Saez engineered a fine trip for Litigate, though the colt deserves credit for making that happen, too. Breaking from post 10 with a relatively short run to the first turn, Litigate bobbled at the start, then was tapped for early speed, crossing the nine horses inside him while asked for speed but coming back to his rider when Saez pulled on the reins at the start of the bend. Rating under a hold after bumping with Dubyuhnell and then briefly steadying off heels, Litigate wound up in the No. 2 path outside Groveland, dropping back a couple lengths to occupy his own space in fifth place as Groveland edged closer to the three leaders.   He wasn’t aggressive about it, but Saez rode his mount along down the backstretch, PRAIRIE HAWK coming to his left flank approaching the far turn. Going his third quarter-mile in a field-best 23.97, Litigate moved wide around fading foes past the three-furlong marker to get into third behind Zydeceaux and Groveland at the five-sixteenths pole. He reached Zydeceaux at the quarter pole, putting him away by the three-sixteenths after switching leads. Saez went twice to a right-handed crop as Litigate continued on steadily, never opening much daylight and losing the gallop-out to a staying-on Groveland. Beyer-wise, he took a step back, but Litigate did win his two-turn and stakes debut in just his third start and, theoretically, should have room to grow.  Groveland, a Godolphin homebred trained by Eoin Harty, was edgy in the starting gate but broke sharply and led briefly before being displaced by Zydeceaux and Litigate. Sneaking inside Litigate around the first turn, Groveland got into a sweet pace-track spot saving ground in fourth place, scooting along the rail at the half-mile pole to draw even with CHAMPIONS DREAM and DREAMING OF KONA. He passed them going into the far turn as jockey Daniel Centeno, seeing Zydeceaux come off the fence, threw the reins at his mount, making a bid for the lead that quickly ended when the hole closed, forcing Centeno to steady and stop riding. Groveland got back on stride but couldn’t get to Zydeceaux when taken off the rail at the quarter pole as Litigate swooped past on his outside. Centeno went back to the fence turning for home and Groveland continued on willingly, though his eventual second-place finish might be more an indictment of the race as a sign of the colt’s quality.   Classic Car Wash broke to his right and brushed the starting gate, easing back alongside Groveland before a chain reaction into the turn caused his rider to check his mount. That got Classic Car Wash completely out of rhythm, causing him to be shuffled back to second-last early on the clubhouse turn. Under a mild ride, Classic Car Wash came two, then three paths wide to pass a few rivals down the backstretch and get into seventh going to the far turn. Classic Legacy came to his outside on the turn and was travelling better than Classic Car Wash, and after spinning his wheels three or four wide to the five-sixteenths pole, Classic Car Wash dropped a couple paths back inside. He gained a little momentum and was part of a three-horse blanket finish for third despite failing to change leads in a generally tepid performance.   Classic Legacy broke decently in his two-turn debut, but after asking for a touch of positional pace out of the gate, the rider took a hold when it became clear Classic Legacy couldn’t keep up early. Steadied into the first turn, Classic Legacy bumped lightly with LAVER to his outside while racing in the No. 4 path between horses going around the bend. Kept wide down the backstretch and into the far turn, Classic Legacy briefly followed Litigate’s move to the five-sixteenths pole, looking like a contender. But he hit a dead spot past the quarter pole, and through the final half-furlong, whether through lack of fitness or distance limitations, flattened out enough to lose third when it looked like he could run second.  Zydeceaux, coming out of five sprint races into his first route, was hard ridden from post 12 to make the front, went a fast raw half-mile split of 46.94, hung tough to upper stretch and tired through the final furlong. That he held a close fourth while clearly gassed suggests that with rain falling, the track surface, as appeared in the races immediately preceding the Sam Davis, was carrying speed.  Laver broke in and brushed Classic Legacy, falling to the tail of the field before the first turn and getting carried five to six paths wide around the bend – meaningful ground loss. Laver at the six-furlong marker began losing touch with the rest of the field and at the half-mile pole was a distant last. He came into the picture approaching the three-furlong pole while moving nicely along the rail, but after getting through on the inside with no trouble, Laver began flagging in upper stretch and had little for the finish.  Dreaming of Kona looked on paper like a prime pace player but broke to his left and was trying to lay in going to the first turn, encountering trouble when a bump with Champions Dream forced him wide. Going with his head held high into the far turn, Dreaming of Kona got a pop of the crop before the three-furlong pole that did little to rouse his interest, and, his mount backpedaling after turning for home, the jockey wrapped up through the final furlong.   Favored at 2-1 off his win in the Remsen Stakes, Dubyuhnell broke without incident but took the worst of things into the turn. The colt appeared to first get intimidated by Champions Dream coming slightly down on him from the outside, which led to further problems when Litigate crossed in front of Dubyuhnell, who swerved dramatically to his outside, bumping with Champions Dream, then getting pinballed between that rival and Litigate. The colt dropped toward the rear, went evenly down the backstretch, and never made an impression. His trouble, however, was severe enough to almost entirely excuse the performance.  Prairie Hawk had led on a slow pace winning his most recent start but already was being outrun when he was pinched and moderately steadied back to last going into the first turn. He came two and three wide off the first turn and down the backstretch to make some progress, wound up back down at the fence on the second turn, hung in competitively to the five-sixteenths pole, then faded.   Worthington, making his dirt debut after four grass races, appeared to resent kickback into the first turn, was ridden along to go nowhere at the half-mile pole, and never came close to getting involved.   Champions Dream contested the pace for the first five-eighths of a mile before fading badly around the far turn and basically being eased to the wire. He endured some serious physical contact during the Dubyuhnell incident and was reported to have lost a shoe during the race.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.