Churchill Downs
Wednesday, April 26
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 46
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A serious drill by the two Japanese contenders in this year’s Kentucky Derby, Derma Sotogake and Continuar, and a test run with the addition of blinkers for Sun Thunder highlighted Wednesday’s Derby-Oaks training session at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A Grade 1 winner returning in a filly-mare allowance sprint creates a fitting dilemma for bettors Friday at Santa Anita. The nine-race card is filled with uncertainty.
Eda enters the eighth race as the most accomplished runner, but she has not started in more than a year and is stuck on the rail. Conditions are not ideal for Eda, a five-time winner whose four stakes wins include the Grade 1 Starlet at Los Alamitos in 2021 and Grade 3 Santa Ysabel at Santa Anita in her most recent start, March 6, 2022.
He has won four of the last five Eclipse Awards as North America’s outstanding jockey and has averaged 320 wins annually the last eight years. At age 30, Irad Ortiz Jr. has risen to the top of his profession.
Ortiz also has developed a reputation as an aggressive rider, who in his quest to win walks the tightrope of daring and dangerous.
“I’m very competitive, but I would never try to put somebody in danger,” Ortiz said. “Everybody who knows me, knows how I am. I am very competitive but I’m not going to try and drop somebody, that’s for sure.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In the glorious 87-year history of Keeneland Race Course, exactly one horse has won the same stakes race three years in a row.
“Well, I guess the odds are stacked against us, huh?” a smiling Bill Mott asked.
Umm, not really. That’s because War Like Goddess, winner of the Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes the last two years, figures as an odds-on favorite Friday when Keeneland closes its 2023 spring meet with the 61st running of the $300,000 Bewitch.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Speed is his strength. Class may be a weakness. Friday, the Louisiana-bred Swot Analysis will be given an opportunity in open company and looms a threat to wire the field in a second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming feature at Aqueduct.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The skeptics who believed bubble horses only add clutter to the Kentucky Derby had their bubble busted last year when Rich Strike pulled his 80-1 stunner as a last-minute runner.
Will lightning strike in the same spot twice? The connections of a handful of horses eager to run next Saturday in the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs sure hope so.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Go West has won three of four starts this year and will look to add to his growing credentials Friday when he starts as the probable favorite in the featured ninth race at Oaklawn Park.
The two-other-than allowance is for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs and carries a claiming option of $75,000. The field of six includes Doctor Oscar, a stakes winner in his native Minnesota, and Ruggs, who could be sitting on a peak race in his third out since October.
Three first-level allowance races for Florida-breds share the spotlight Friday at Gulfstream Park. There is a $50,000 claiming option in race 2 and a $20,000 claiming option in the eighth race.
The nine-race card gets under way at 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
Race 2: Kitty Quick will be among the favorites in the mile and 70-yard race on Tapeta, which drew seven well-matched sophomore fillies.
Rich Strike, unraced since finishing last of six in the Grade 1 Clark here in late November, had his final work toward his 4-year-old debut when he breezed a half-mile in 47.80 seconds well before dawn Tuesday.
Rich Strike went winless in five starts following the Derby last year. Owner Rick Dawson and trainer Eric Reed already have tentatively plotted out a series of races for the Keen Ice colt this year, starting with the Grade 2 Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks card next Friday.
WHO’S HOT
Jace’s Road might seem curious as a “Who’s Hot.” After all, he is a 50-1 outsider by Derby Watch linemaker David Aragona and finished a fading third in the Louisiana Derby despite easy fractions. The reason Jace’s Road is hot is the Kentucky Derby defection of Blazing Sevens, which allows Jace’s Road into the field. He has 45 qualifying points, the same as Skinner and Cyclone Mischief. Jace’s Road wins the tiebreaker, which is non-restricted stakes earnings.
