West Point team hoping Galilean can make Kentucky Derby cut

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Galilean will be bidding to send West Point Thoroughbreds back to the Kentucky Derby this year when he runs Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

“We’re hoping he takes us there,” said the group’s president, Terry Finley.

West Point Thoroughbreds won the Kentucky Derby in partnership in 2017 with Always Dreaming. The group also raced Commanding Curve, who was second to California Chrome in the 2014 Kentucky Derby, and was partners in My Boy Jack, who was fifth in last year’s Derby, won by Justify.

Galilean, a multiple stakes winner at two turns who is based in Southern California, shipped to Oaklawn last month and in his first start against open company ran third in the first division of the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel on March 16.

“We’re excited to come back,” Finley said. “It was his first trip last time and I thought he handled it okay, and I think he’ll handle his second trip out of town better.

“We hope that we’ve improved our game a little bit. I’m getting very good vibes from trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. We’re going in there with a dose of confidence.”

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Flavien Prat has the mount, said Finley.

Galilean, a California-bred, is 3 for 5 including two stakes victories routing against statebreds. A nine-length winner in the one-mile King Glorious Stakes last December at Los Alamitos, he opened his 3-year-old campaign with a win in the 1 1/16-mile California Cup Derby on Feb. 18 at Santa Anita.

Galilean, who also races for Denise Barker and William Sandbrook, will enter the Arkansas Derby with 7.5 points for the Kentucky Derby and is sitting 33rd on the latest points list put out by Churchill Downs. The Arkansas Derby will award its first four finishers with points on a scale of 100-40-20-10.

Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope on Saturday had a working list of 10 to 12 starters for the Arkansas Derby. The 1 1/8-mile race is to be drawn Wednesday. The probables include: Country House, Galilean, Gray Attempt, Improbable, Jersey Agenda, Laughing Fox, Long Range Toddy, Omaha Beach, One Flew South, and Six Shooter.

Pope said plans call for a 12-race card Saturday with a special first post of noon Central. The long-range forecast calls for a high of 64 degrees and a better than 50 percent chance of rain late in the day Saturday.

The Arkansas Derby is the centerpiece of the Racing Festival of the South, which features six stakes worth a cumulative $3.6 million to be run from Friday through Sunday.