It might have taken five tries to win his first race, but in the span of three months World Beater has gone from an overdue maiden to a Grade 1 winner. After a successful stint at Saratoga this summer, the 3-year-old colt seems poised to live up to his name in the Grade 3, $500,000 Old Dominion Derby at Colonial Downs on Saturday. “The timing of the race was really good for us,” trainer Riley Mott said. “It’s five weeks between races. He’s still a developing horse, and we like the contour of the track at Colonial and the shape that it’s in.” While the “Virginia Derby” race name has been repurposed as a prep on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in March, this year’s running of the race will be the first as the Old Dominion Derby. The 1 1/8-mile turf race has been known as the Virginia Derby, New Kent County Virginia Derby, and Commonwealth Derby since it was first run in 1998. It is the feature race on a 10-race Saturday card that offers $1.3 million in stakes purses. By constantly improving in the face of steepening competition, World Beater has only taken four races to become one of the strongest 3-year-old turf runners in the country. The colt won his first stakes race 29 days after his maiden victory in the $273,500 Audubon at Churchill Downs, emphatically proving that he was ready for the summer voyage to New York. In the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational, his graded stakes debut at Saratoga, World Beater ran on well at 11-1 to finish second to Test Score, a far more experienced stakes runner trained by Graham Motion. It might not have been a victory, but it left Mott with no doubts about his prospects near the top of the division. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. In the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational in August, World Beater went off at 11-1 odds again in a rematch with Test Score. Both stalking contenders had their work cut out for them when 28-1 longshot Juwelier tried to steal the race on the front end, but in a three-way stretch duel, World Beater got the better of his two rivals in a gutsy half-length victory. “It was really nice to see him take a step forward, even from the first Saratoga race,” Mott said. “We’re hoping he hasn’t plateaued yet and he can continue trending in the upward direction.” After profoundly challenging tests at Saratoga this summer, World Beater has a distinct class edge entering the Old Dominion Derby. No other runner in the field of nine has run in graded stakes company on the turf, though three have done so on dirt. Jorge Duarte Jr. acknowledged that World Beater, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, seemed to be a notch above the rest of the field, but the trainer has been preparing Outrunner for this race for months and expects a strong effort. “In hindsight, we’ve always been trying to get him here to Virginia,” Duarte said. “That’s an interesting race for him.” In his stakes debut at Monmouth Park in June, Duarte’s colt finished second in the $100,000 Tale of the Cat. He didn’t run again until August, when he ran under a hard early hold and finished second again in a $74,400 allowance at Colonial. “To me, that race was sneaky good,” Duarte said. That race ran really strong if you compare it with [the Grade 2 Secretariat on the same day]. I think it’s a good setup for the race Saturday.” There seem to be many ways into the Old Dominion Derby field this year, as the nine runners last raced at five different tracks. Iron Hand, a colt trained by Jose D’Angelo, is taking a more obscure path from Gulfstream Park after dueling on the front end and finishing third by a length in the $75,000 Bear’s Den. “He likes to be behind the pace and make his move,” D’Angelo said. “I know his speciality is on the Tapeta, but with the last race, I feel like I can try other races.” Iron Hand’s stakes debut last month was also his turf debut, making his hard-fought defeat all the more impressive. The colt entered that race on a tear, having won four straight races on synthetic in Florida. Trainer Kenny McPeek entered two colts, but Native Runner will scratch and instead run in the $2 million Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs. Lured Away will make his turf debut at Colonial after closing from well back to finish third in the $100,000 Petramalo Mile last month. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.