There are just two more prep races for the Kentucky Derby to be run, both on Saturday, and the combination of top runners from last year holding their form, a carve out for one horse from Europe, and few defections among the leaders has raised the likely point total needed to make this year’s field.

Mike Smith followed his Derby-Oaks double last Saturday at Santa Anita with a trip to Keeneland on Sunday, where he finished third in the Beaumont Stakes with the California-based filly Uppercut. While there, Smith joined with fellow riders taking phone calls for the nationwide telethon in support of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, an effort that raised more than $200,000.

Betting on the Kentucky Derby could turn out to be very interesting. The undefeated Justify very likely made himself the favorite with his dazzling victory over Bolt d’Oro in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, but there are perhaps a half-dozen colts who could legitimately start at single-digit odds.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The victory by Justify in the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday led bettors to make the colt a clear-cut favorite in the fourth and final pool in the 2018 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern following the customary three-day run.

With $339,036 in the win pool, Justify was the 3-1 favorite, followed by Mendelssohn (5-1), Audible (7-1), Magnum Moon (8-1), Good Magic (9-1), and Bolt d’Oro (10-1). The lowest $2 exacta will-pay is the combination of Justify over Mendelssohn (12-15), worth $47.60.

Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby, 1 1/8 miles, Santa Anita, April 7, 2018
(100 Derby qualifying points for a win, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)

Winner: Justify, by Scat Daddy
Trainer: Bob Baffert
Jockey: Mike Smith
Owner: China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm
Beyer Speed Figure: 107

ARCADIA, Calif. – In just 48 days, Justify has gone from an unstarted maiden to the winner of the Santa Anita Derby, and now he heads to the May 5 Kentucky Derby as the current favorite for the race. There’s potentially room for improvement, too, according to trainer Bob Baffert, who on Sunday morning here at Santa Anita said he had yet to “bear down” on Justify, saying everything to this point has been “done with raw talent.”

“I think he’s caught up now,” Baffert said. “He’s doing that all on his own.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite their bumper-car battle in the stretch, Vino Rosso and Enticed emerged from Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial in good order and will proceed to Churchill Downs for the May 5 Kentucky Derby. However, both are expected to make a return trip to South Florida to prepare for the Run for the Roses.

Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Wood winner Vino Rosso, and Kiaran McLaughlin, the conditioner of runner-up Enticed, both indicated that neither horse was worse for the wear from a bumping incident that somewhat clouded the race.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby picked up a new player over the weekend when Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip scratched from the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and rolled into the Oaklawn backstretch at 4:30 a.m. Saturday.

Quip tracked Sunday at Oaklawn, where he will start as one of the top choices in the Arkansas Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race that closes out the meet on Saturday. The Arkansas Derby is a points race for the Kentucky Derby. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Good Magic emerged from his Saturday victory in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in excellent shape and will remain stabled here for the foreseeable future before moving down the road to Churchill Downs as one of the top contenders for the May 5 Kentucky Derby.

Brown reiterated Sunday morning what he told the media the previous evening at a post-race briefing – that Good Magic will remain here long enough to have at least one breeze before moving over to Louisville for at least one serious work over the Churchill main track.

For many, the inclination seems to be to stress that he got away with an easy, uncontested early lead over a small field short on real competition, and that circumstances will be dramatically different on many levels in the Kentucky Derby than they were in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby. And the unmistakable inference here is he will be exposed at Churchill Downs.

But I think that misses the real point, which is that Justify proved in his decisive victory over Bolt d’Oro in the Santa Anita Derby that he is absolutely, without question, the real deal.