HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Classic Empire won the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday like a horse that wants 1 1/4 miles, and that’s what he will get next month at Churchill Downs. Trainer Mark Casse said Sunday that Classic Empire emerged from his stretch-running effort at Oaklawn in good order and will fly Monday to Churchill.

Casse welcomes the added distance for Classic Empire, the champion 2-year-old male of 2016 who shares the same sire as Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Both are sons of Pioneereof the Nile.

Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, 1 1/8 miles, Oaklawn Park, April 15, 2017
(100 Derby qualifying points for a win, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)

Winner: Classic Empire, by Pioneerof the Nile
Trainer: Mark Casse
Jockey: Julien Leparoux
Owner: John Oxley
Beyer Speed Figure: 94

In a Kentucky Derby prep-race season that has taken some weird and uninspiring turns even by Kentucky Derby prep-season standards – which says a lot – Saturday’s Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn was an entirely fitting coda.

At the top, it was good for the Derby and good for the game that Classic Empire won the Arkansas Derby. Classic Empire was last year’s unanimous 2-year-old male champion, and a 3-year-old with credentials like that should absolutely be in the Kentucky Derby field, as long as he is ambulatory.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Relief.

That's the emotion that first rushed over trainer Mark Casse when champion Classic Empire crossed the wire first in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn.

Classic Empire and Casse had been through a range of developments this season, as the horse who closed out his 2-year-old season with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile could manage just a distant third in his first start of the year in the Grade 2 Holy Bull at Gulfstream.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Girvin, the winner of the Louisiana Derby, and Fast and Accurate, the Spiral Stakes winner, breezed Saturday at the Churchill Downs Trackside facility in preparation for the May 6 Kentucky Derby.

Fast and Accurate was the first of the two Derby prospects to breeze after the track-renovation break, going five furlongs in 59.60 seconds in company with On John, a maiden. Trackside clocker Richard McCreery caught him in splits of 12 seconds, 24, 35.80, and 47.60 and timed him galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.80.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Always Dreaming, the potential favorite for the Kentucky Derby, turned in the first of his three scheduled breezes leading up to the big event, going an easy half-mile in 49.90 seconds with jockey John Velazquez aboard shortly after dawn Friday at Palm Beach Downs.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Classic Empire has a chance to shake things up at the top of the 3-year-old charts with the right kind of performance Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

But to do that, the champion, who is looking to rebound from a third-place finish in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream, must overcome 11 rivals. They include fellow Daily Racing Form Derby Watch members Malagacy, the winner of last month’s Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel at Oaklawn, and Untrapped, who has been knocking on the door in preps at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – There will be no Kentucky Derby for whoever wins the Lexington Stakes. The Preakness, maybe, or at least that’s the way history has been leaning lately.

Regardless, the Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington carries its own measure of import and prestige, and a lineup of 10 3-year-olds in the 1 1/16-mile race Saturday at Keeneland comes about as well matched as can be. More than half the field can claim a realistic chance at victory, which comes with 10 Derby eligibility points that surely will go unused.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Last year’s juvenile male champion, Classic Empire, will break from post 2 in a field of 12 for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday. The race was drawn Wednesday and picked up a few new faces following the Monday defection of One Liner.

Classic Empire was scheduled to arrive on the Oaklawn backstretch later Wednesday following a flight from south Florida.

The connections of Classic Empire have walked a tightrope all spring trying to get the colt to the Kentucky Derby, and now they’ve got one major hurdle to clear – having Classic Empire earn sufficient points and run well enough in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday to merit a Kentucky Derby start three weeks later.