Royal Son favored in Spiral
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Spring officially begins Friday, but Kentucky horseplayers defer to a different calendar. To them, spring begins Saturday, when Turfway Park hosts the $550,000, Grade 3 Spiral Stakes – its Kentucky Derby prep race that produced Derby winners Lil E. Tee in 1992 and Animal Kingdom in 2011.
Is there a Kentucky Derby winner among the 11 horses expected to compete in Saturday’s Spiral? Probably not. Contested at 1 1/8 miles on Turfway’s synthetic Polytrack surface, the race largely is comprised of horses adept at racing on turf or synthetic tracks.
Not that there isn’t quality in the field, and for horses with Derby potential, if they run first or second in the race, they likely will garner enough qualifying points to make an oversubscribed Kentucky Derby. The Spiral has 85 Derby qualifying points at stake, with 50 to the winner and 20 to the runner-up.
Among the notable entrants, there is the Todd Pletcher-trained Royal Son, favored at 7-2, who won the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway, earning 97 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest in Saturday’s field; California invader Metaboss, a winner of two straight, including the El Camino Real Derby on Tapeta, a synthetic surface; Dubai Sky, riding a three-race winning streak on turf and by an elite synthetic sire in Candy Ride; and Conquest Typhoon, a two-time stakes winner on turf who ran third in the El Camino Real when keen in his first start of the year.
One horse not starting is the Spiral entrant Imperia, who officially was scratched Thursday, Turfway stewards said. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Wednesday that he was dissatisfied with how the horse was doing.
For most in the Spiral lineup, Saturday’s race, not the Derby, is the realistic prize. It is by far the richest Kentucky Derby prep still run on a synthetic track, with the El Camino Real Derby a distant second with a $200,000 purse.
With turf stakes at this time of year limited in purse size, the Spiral provides a rewarding opportunity to take a chance with a grass horse, hoping he takes to Polytrack, a synthetic surface that many horsemen believe a grass horse is more apt to handle than dirt.
Along those lines, three horses in the race – Watchyourownbobber, Another Lemon Drop, and Dubai Sky – are shifting from grass to synthetic, and another, Wireless Future, goes from a race on dirt that had been moved off the turf due to inclement weather.
The Spiral, sponsored by Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, will be run as the 11th of 12 Saturday races. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, with the Spiral going at 6:28. One other Grade 3 race, the $150,000 Bourbonette Oaks, a Kentucky Oaks prep, directly precedes it as race 10 at 5:42. General admission is $10.
TVG will provide television coverage of the Spiral, and HRRN will air it on radio.
Key contenders
Royal Son (Last 3 Beyers: 97-73-75)
Equipped with blinkers for the first time and moved from dirt to Polytrack in the Feb. 28 John Battaglia, he sped to the front, set a slow pace, and drew away by 5 1/4 lengths, though in a race in which the favored The Great War was eased.
He earned a 97 Beyer in winning the Battaglia, though notably on an evening when speed fared well. Eight of the nine winners on the Feb. 28 card at Turfway raced first or second at the first call.
Conquest Typhoon (Last 3 Beyers: 81-79-76)
Returned following a 2 1/2-month layoff in the El Camino Real. He was too fresh, moving prematurely to take the lead down the backstretch before ultimately being outkicked by two runners, including the victorious Metaboss, who is back in the Spiral.
Metaboss (Last 3 Beyers: 86-73-77)
Rallied from eighth to win the El Camino Real but did so over a Tapeta synthetic footing that many observers claim plays kinder to turf horses than any other synthetic surface. He previously had won a grass race at Santa Anita after a runner-up finish to the now-graded-placed Bolo in a turf race there.
Dubai Sky (Last 3 Beyers: 78-78-70)
Showed heart in narrowly winning the Kitten’s Joy Stakes in a tight finish at Gulfstream Park, his third straight victory on turf, and is bred for synthetic, being by Candy Ride, a superior all-weather sire. He adds the anti-bleeding medication Lasix for the first time.