HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ask the trainers of the leading contenders in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby to talk about the opposition, and none seems to know what to expect when they get to Maximum Security. Ask Maximum Security’s trainer, Jason Servis, how he feels the undefeated former $16,000 claimer will perform in the important Kentucky Derby prep, and his answer is pretty much the same.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite his fourth-place finish as the 6-5 choice in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2, Hidden Scroll was pegged the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 3-year-olds drawn Wednesday for the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 1 Florida Derby highlights a 14-race program Saturday that includes six other stakes and will offer a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, with a carryover of more than $3 million if the jackpot is not hit Thursday or Friday.

Hidden Scroll

Hard Spun–Sheba Queen, by Empire Maker

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms

Flashy debut winner Hidden Scroll was the victim of a brutal pace when he faded to fourth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this month behind Code of Honor. Hidden Scroll, who is from an outstanding family typical of Juddmonte’s program, gets a chance at redemption in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby.

The first time Shug McGaughey ran horses in the Kentucky Derby, he was all of 33 years old and on the fast track to what has proven to be a Hall of Fame career. He was hoping a Derby win would come quickly, “to get it over with,” as he put it this week.

But it took another 29 years for McGaughey to finally tick off that box and get a Derby win, with Orb in 2013. And the wait – which included a runner-up finish by Easy Goer in 1989 – made it all the sweeter, he said.

“I think it made me appreciate it that much more,” McGaughey said on a national teleconference.

WHO’S HOT

The one-two finishers from both the Louisiana Derby and Sunland Park Derby last weekend are the four newcomers to this week’s Derby Watch top 20, which is increasingly driven by the points list as Derby Day draws closer because you can’t win it if you’re not in it. By My Standards and Spinoff, the top two in the Louisiana Derby, are both 20-1 on the Kentucky Derby line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper. Watchmaker has both Cutting Humor and Anothertwistafate, the top two in the Sunland Park Derby, at 30-1.

Trainer Todd Pletcher’s 3-year-olds are starting to come to hand, punctuated by Cutting Humor’s track-record win Sunday in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby. 

Pletcher on Saturday sent out Spinoff to a close runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and, on March 9, the promising Outshine was second in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Downs Derby. 

The horses are Pletcher’s leading Kentucky Derby points earners, with Cutting Humor sitting fifth with 50 on the latest list put out by Churchill Downs. Spinoff is ninth with 40 and Outshine is 20th with 20. 

Jose Ortiz will take over as the rider on Improbable when he makes his final start before the Kentucky Derby in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13 at Oaklawn Park, said Elliott Walden, the president and chief executive of co-owner WinStar Farm, on Tuesday.

Improbable won all three of his starts last year, including the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity. He suffered the first loss of his career in his most-recent start, his first start at 3, when narrowly losing a division of the Rebel at Oaklawn. He has been ridden in all his starts by Drayden Van Dyke.

Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby; 1 1/8 miles; Sunland Park; March 24, 2019

(50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)

Winner: Cutting Humor, by First Samurai

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: John Velazquez

Owner: Starlight Racing

Beyer Speed Figure: 95

Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, 1 1/8 miles, Fair Grounds, March 23, 2019
(100 Derby qualifying points for a win, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)

Winner: By My Standards, by Goldencents
Trainer: Bret Calhoun
Jockey: Gabriel Saez
Owner: Allied Racing Stable, LLC
Beyer Speed Figure: 97

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gunmetal Gray, who won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in January, was diagnosed with a condylar fracture after a workout at Santa Anita on Sunday and was scheduled to undergo surgery later in the day.

Terry Finley, president and chief executive of West Point Thoroughbreds, which co-owns the colt, said the injury was diagnosed at the barn in the minutes after the workout and “doesn’t appear to be career-threatening.”

“It looks fixable,” Finley said.