Two stakes at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan on Sunday – the Grade 1 February Stakes for older horses and the Hyacinth Stakes for 3-year-olds – could produce runners for two of the biggest races in the United States later this year.
The winner of the $1.76 million February Stakes at a mile will receive a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.
From an historical perspective, it is appropriate that Saturday’s $100,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields awards its winner a berth in the Preakness Stakes. Three consecutive Preakness winners – Gate Dancer (1984), Tank’s Prospect (1985), and Snow Chief (1986) – ran in the El Camino Real Derby, and Tabasco Cat scored an El Camino-Preakness double in 1994.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Twice in the last four years and five times since 1996 Bob Baffert has trained the winner of the Kentucky Derby.
He has done it with horses who were brilliant at 2 and trained on like Silver Charm; a wiry colt who needed plenty of racing to find his best form in Real Quiet; a late acquisition like War Emblem; a champion at 2 who repeated at 3 in American Pharoah; and, in Justify last year, a horse who at this point in the calendar hadn’t even started.
Two of them, American Pharoah and Justify, went on to sweep the Triple Crown.
Grade 3, $250,000 Sam Davis Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Tampa Bay Downs, Feb. 9, 2019
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Well Defined, by With Distinction
Trainer: Kathleen O’Connell
Jockey: Pablo Morales
Owner: Stonehedge LLC
Beyer Speed Figure: 93
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as the favorite over Game Winner after three days of betting into Pool 2 of the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager. The pool opened Friday at noon Eastern and ran through 6 p.m. Sunday.
The field closed at 5-2, followed by Game Winner (5-1), Hidden Scroll (7-1), Improbable (7-1), Instagrand (10-1), and War of Will (17-1). The lowest $2 exacta will-pay is Game Winner over Improbable (3-9), worth $52.40.
Hidden Scroll, a runaway winner of his debut on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park, and Code of Honor, runner-up in last year’s Champagne Stakes, are among the 3-year-olds pointing for the Grade 2, $350,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 2 at Gulfstream, their trainers said Thursday.
Hidden Scroll dazzled on the Pegasus undercard, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 104. On Thursday trainer Bill Mott said “we’re taking a serious look at the Fountain of Youth” with the son of Hard Spun.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Ben Colebrook has a simple goal for Knicks Go this winter at Tampa Bay Downs – do enough to return home a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender. The first of two Tampa races for the speedy gray colt will come Saturday, when the Sam F. Davis anchors an outstanding Festival Preview card.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Knicks Go surely will be favored Saturday when the Sam F. Davis Stakes is renewed at Tampa Bay Downs, but one of the more compelling reasons to fade the speedy gray colt is this: Todd has one in there against him.
So Alive, a winner in two of three career starts, all for trainer Todd Pletcher, will be making his stakes debut as one of the chief threats to Knicks Go in the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam Davis. The 39th running of the Sam Davis is the lone qualifying points race (10-4-2-1) toward the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
