Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes, 1 1/8 miles, Fair Grounds, Feb. 13, 2021
(50 Derby qualifying points for first, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)
Winner: Mandaloun, by Into Mischief
Trainer: Brad Cox
Jockey: Florent Geroux
Owner: Juddmonte Farms Inc.
Beyer Speed Figure: 98
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Prevalence, one of the more exciting prospects for the May 1 Kentucky Derby, was out for serious work again early Friday, going five furlongs in 1:01 over a fast track at the Palm Meadows training center.
Derby fever will come to a boil Saturday at Golden Gate Fields when the 40th El Camino Real Derby is run with a field of nine.
The $100,000 El Camino Real Derby, run at 1 1/8 miles over the Tapeta main track, offers 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points and a berth in the Preakness to the winner.
:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2021: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more
Tuesday in New Orleans will be the quietest Mardi Gras ever. COVID-19, which spread through the city after Mardi Gras 2020, has smothered the annual public bacchanal. Not even the famous parades Rex, and Zulu, and Endymion, which snakes a couple blocks from the Fair Grounds, will roll.
None of the trainer Todd Fincher’s 6,000-plus starters have raced at Fair Grounds. Fincher is a New Mexico horseman. His stomping grounds are Albuquerque, Ruidoso, Sunland, Zia. He breaks yearlings at a facility not far from Sunland, which sits along the Rio Grande outside El Paso. But Fincher has been given good reason to travel farther afield the last several months. The reason is a colt named Senor Buscador.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Keepmeinmind, the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner who had been entered in the Risen Star on Saturday at Fair Grounds, will remain home and run in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Wednesday.
The Southwest has been rescheduled from Monday to next Saturday, Feb. 20, because Oaklawn has canceled racing Saturday to Monday due to a forecast for frigid weather.
Brad Cox grew up just two blocks from the back gate at Churchill Downs, close enough to espy the twin spires with a quick walk, or hear the roar of the crowd in the afternoon when the races were being run. The racing bug bit him early, and never left.
Essential Quality
Tapit – Delightful Quality, by Elusive Quality
Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin
Tapit, among the most successful sires in modern classic history, has three individuals in the first Derby Watch Top 20 list. That trio is led by Godolphin’s homebred Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality, already a multiple Grade 1 winner around two turns.
Nine new names are in the lineup for Pool 3 of the 2021 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens at noon Eastern on Friday for the customary three-day run.
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, has been pegged as the 7-2 morning-line favorite in Pool 3 by Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia, with Essential Quality and Life Is Good the shortest individual interests, both at 8-1. Then come Caddo River (12-1), Greatest Honour (15-1), and Risk Taking (15-1), with all others 20-1 or higher.
