Plans are fluid for California 3-year-olds, but well-seasoned Citizen Bull could start just once more before the Kentucky Derby, while lightly raced Barnes and Rodriguez have time for two more starts beginning with the Grade 2 Rebel on Feb. 22 at Oaklawn Park or Grade 2 San Felipe on March 1 at Santa Anita. Citizen Bull, Barnes, and Rodriguez are trained by Bob Baffert.
“I might wait for the Santa Anita Derby with” Citizen Bull, Baffert said last weekend.
WHO’S HOT
Sand Devil defeated just four New York-breds in the Damon Runyon Stakes last Saturday at Aqueduct, but the 3-for-3 colt was fast and game. Sand Devil is the only new face this week on the Derby Watch Top 20. Daily Racing Form linemaker David Aragona opens him at 40-1, replacing Poster.
Citizen Bull, last year’s champion 2-year-old colt and the winner of this year’s Robert B. Lewis Stakes in his only 2025 start, has been made the 6-1 individual morning-line favorite for the fourth Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool, which will open on Friday and close on Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Citizen Bull, who won the Robert B. Lewis by 3 3/4 lengths in front-running fashion, is one of 39 individual entries for the Future Wager. The field, or "all other 3-year-olds," entry is the overall morning-line favorite at 5-1.
Disco Time, 3 for 3 to start his career and a late-rallying winner last month in the Lecomte, has been notably absent from the Fair Grounds work tab since that race and is not entered in Saturday's Risen Star Stakes.
“He’s fine. We just had a little setback with him,” said Brad Cox, who trains Disco Time for his breeder, Juddmonte.
Disco Time won a pair of one-turn races in Kentucky before closing from 10th to win the Lecomte with a modest 77 Beyer. Cox said the colt is in training and will be pointed toward the Louisiana Derby, Arkansas Derby, or Blue Grass.
In the days after Built struggled home second on Jan. 18 in the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds, trainer Wayne Catalano deemed the horse an unlikely runner in the Risen Star Stakes. Built had scored a sharp victory a month earlier in the Gun Runner, and Catalano figured he’d bring a fresh horse into the Louisiana Derby on March 22.
But there’s been a change of plans. Built showed up in the entries when the Grade 2, $500,000 Risen Star was drawn Saturday, and Catalano said the intention is to run.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Before he attempts to jump on the Triple Crown trail, Sand Devil will get one more tune-up against New York-bred competition in Saturday’s $125,000 Damon Runyon Stakes at Aqueduct.
Sand Devil, a son of Violence owned by Chester Broman and trained by Linda Rice, figures to be around 1-5 against four rivals in the seven-furlong Damon Runyon. That explains why the race is carded as the second (1:10 p.m. post) on a nine-race card.
Trainer Chad Brown reported that Chancer McPatrick, his two-time Grade 1-winning colt of 2024 who finished sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, has had two workouts at Payson Park and is being pointed to the Tampa Bay Derby on March 8.
Chancer McPatrick went three furlongs in 39 seconds on Jan. 26 and then three furlongs in 37.80 seconds on Feb. 2.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Patch Adams emerged from his fourth-place finish in last month’s Grade 3 Southwest at Oaklawn Park in excellent condition, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday, with plans for the horse’s next start still being determined.
Patch Adams was making his two-turn debut in the Southwest and was the 4-5 favorite off a November maiden special weight win at Churchill Downs. He won the seven-furlong race on the front end in 1:20.77 and the Beyer Speed Figure of 98 he earned was the second-highest number put up by a 2-year-old in 2024.
WHO’S HOT
Citizen Bull opens as 10-1 favorite on the Derby Watch Top 20 after a front-running comeback win Feb. 1 in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita. Wire-to-wire winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile three months earlier, Citizen Bull was handed an easy lead in the Lewis and was strong to the finish. He will always be tough to catch when he gets a soft trip setting the pace.
