At Santa Anita on Monday, Potente, the Santa Anita Derby runner-up trained by Bob Baffert, was credited with a six-furlong workout in 1:13.40. Baffert said he put the filly Cash Call - last year's Grade 3 Summer Oaks winner - in front of Potente to give the horse a target.
“I was very happy with his work. He galloped out strong,” Baffert said. “He’s doing very well right now, looks healthy.”
The NFL Draft begins Thursday night, and for weeks leading up to it, everyone is looking for tangible evidence of which player is the best fit for their team. The NFL Scouting Combine, held roughly two months out, plays a role in defining which college players move up or down the draft board.
The Kentucky Derby is May 2. A series of stakes races held globally over the course of several months help comprise the field for the race. Key workouts conducted in between those races and the Derby itself play a role in defining which horses move up or down handicappers’ boards.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Chief Wallabee bandwagon suddenly got a lot more crowded after the relatively inexperienced but extremely talented 3-year-old turned in his penultimate Kentucky Derby workout Monday at Churchill Downs.
Chief Wallabee was the lone Kentucky Derby contender to breeze Monday, doing so under clear but chilly skies at 7:30 a.m. during the special Derby/Oaks training session. The racetrack was on the quick side throughout the morning, perhaps even more so following the 7 a.m. renovation break.
The Kentucky Derby bubble lost two, but picked up two horses over the weekend.
Nearly and Bravaro, who sit 23 and 24, respectively, on the Derby points list - and that’s with unlikely Derby starters Stark Contrast and Iron Honor still on that list - are no longer under Derby consideration, according to their connections.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Pavlovian will be ready for a fight should a speed duel develop in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2.
“He doesn’t want anyone passing him,” jockey Edwin Maldonado said at Santa Anita on Sunday morning.
A few minutes earlier, Maldonado was aboard Pavlovian for the colt’s final workout in California before a scheduled departure to Kentucky on Tuesday.
Working in company with stablemate Robusta, Pavlovian went six furlongs in 1:15. Robusta was timed in 1:16.
So Happy has trained forwardly since winning the Santa Anita Derby on April 4, and on Friday morning the Mark Glatt-trained colt posted his first work since the Santa Anita Derby stamped him as a contender for the Kentucky Derby.
Jockey Mike Smith was aboard So Happy for the five-furlong drill in 59.60. He worked in company with a Glatt-trained stablemate.
Glatt said So Happy “broke maybe a half-length off, and then just kind of got to the [workmate] when he wanted to, and got by him slightly.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – One of the most eagerly anticipated workouts in the lead-up to this year’s Kentucky Derby took place in relative anonymity shortly after sunrise Thursday at Palm Beach Downs. There, likely Derby favorite Renegade breezed four furlongs in 48.91 seconds in front of some half-dozen spectators, including his trainer, Todd Pletcher.
WHO’S HOT
There has been little to no change to the perspective field with no major defections. Renegade, the presumptive Derby favorite, was expected to return to the work tab on Thursday at Palm Beach Downs. It would be his first breeze since his victory in the Arkansas Derby on March 28.
With more than 4,500 wins and five Eclipse Awards to his credit in a career that is still in its prime, jockey Irad Oritz Jr. has had more than his share of memorable moments. None of them, however, have come in the Kentucky Derby.
Nine times Ortiz has ridden the Derby without success. His best Derby result came with Improbable, the favorite in 2019, who was elevated from fifth to fourth following the disqualification of Maximum Security from first. However, Ortiz feels Mo Donegal, fifth behind longshot Rich Strike was, to date, his best chance.
