Split Risen Star all but guarantees division winners a Kentucky Derby berth

Red roses are top of mind this weekend. Valentine’s Day is Friday, and on Saturday, the most important races to date in 2020 will be held for aspirants to the Run for the Roses.

The Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds was split into two divisions that each will award 50 points to the victors, a number that virtually guarantees spots in the inevitable 20-horse field for the Kentucky Derby, to be held this year on May 2 at Churchill Downs.

Two members of the inaugural Derby Watch top 20 will be in action in the Risen Star, and they conveniently wound up in different divisions, with Enforceable in the first division, race 12, and Anneau d’Or in the second division, race 13.

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Enforceable is 12-1 in the current Derby line set by Daily Racing Form’s Marty McGee, who priced the 20 horses on the Derby Watch list as though they were the starting field for the race. McGee’s current favorite is Tiz the Law, the dynamic winner of the Holy Bull, who is 4-1, with Nadal, winner of the San Vicente last Sunday at Santa Anita, next at 5-1.

Enforceable is the sixth choice on McGee’s line. Anneau d’Or is one of four horses listed as the co-ninth choices, at 20-1.

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In addition to the point value of the Risen Star, the race takes on added significance this year in that it is now 1 1/8 miles, 110 yards farther than in recent editions and part of a stakes program at Fair Grounds that saw an overall increase in distances for its Derby preps. The Louisiana Derby on March 21, for which the Risen Star is the final local prep, is now 1 3/16 miles after being 1 1/8 miles from 2010 through last year. It was shortened to 1 1/16 miles from 1988 to 2009 after being 1 1/8 miles for more than 50 years.

The extra distance offers opportunities and challenges, respectively, for the marquee colts.

Enforceable, by Tapit, has thrived the farther he has raced and already owns a victory at 1 1/8 miles, when beating maidens last summer at Saratoga.

“You can’t make ’em too far for him,” Mark Casse, who trains Enforceable, said Wednesday. “The way we train, where we like to have horses settle and then come running, you can do that in New Orleans much more than say Gulfstream Park.

“I love that the Louisiana Derby is a mile and three-sixteenths. It keeps you moving more toward your goal,” Casse said, referring to the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles

Anneau d’Oro, by Medaglia d’Oro, will be taking the unusual step of beginning his Derby prep schedule in a 1 1/8-mile race, the farthest he has ever raced. Last fall, he was second twice going 1 1/16 miles, in both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Los Alamitos Futurity. This will be his first start in more than two months.

Orb, in 2013, was the last Derby winner who began his 3-year-old campaign going 1 1/8 miles when returning from a layoff of more than two months, but that was in an allowance race.

Horses are campaigned far less frequently now than ever before. It was more usual back in the 1950s through the 1970s to see Derby winners begin their 3-year-old campaigns in at least one sprint before stretching out. Orb, in fact, is the only Derby winner to begin his 3-year-old campaign going 1 1/8 miles following a layoff of more than 60 days in more than 65 years.

There are two other points-scoring races this holiday weekend, the El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate and the Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn. Those are the last of the early round of preps that offer 10 points to the winner.

The El Camino Real Derby, run on the all-weather Tapeta surface, is a Win and You’re In toward the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown on May 16 at Pimlico. Last year’s winner was Anothertwistafate, trained and owned, like Anneau d’Oro, by Blaine Wright and Peter Redekop, respectively.

Also of interest this weekend is an allowance race Friday at Tampa Bay Downs featuring Derby Watch member Gouverneur Morris, making his 3-year-old debut.

After a quiet weekend Feb. 22-23, the next major prep race will be the Fountain of Youth on Feb. 29 at Gulfstream, scheduled to be the 3-year-old debut of Dennis’ Moment. Tiz the Law is scheduled to bypass the Fountain of Youth and await the Florida Derby on March 28 at Gulfstream, one of the final round of preps that offer 100 points for first and 40 for second.