NEW ORLEANS – The Saints didn’t make the NFL playoffs this year, and the Pelicans aren’t going to make the NBA playoffs either, but Tom Benson, the New Orleans-born and raised owner of both teams, and his wife, Gayle, still are very much in the Kentucky Derby playoffs.

Gun Runner

Candy Ride – Quiet Giant, by Giant’s Causeway

:: DERBY WATCH: Top 20 list | Derby Watch: With a murderers' row of mounts, Geroux's time has come

Collected won the richest and longest race of his young career last Sunday in the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes, and the 3-year-old has a host of options going forward, according to trainer Bob Baffert. Collected, who in January won the Grade 3 Sham at his base of Santa Anita, earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 90 in Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile race at Sunland.

NEW ORLEANS – Florent Geroux showed up right on time at the Fair Grounds track kitchen for a scheduled interview Wednesday morning, just after working three horses, including the top filly I’m a Chatterbox, with another to work later after the renovation break. It’s been that kind of a meet for the jockey, making well-timed moves and getting on the best horses, and he’ll look to win the biggest of them all at this meet Saturday when he rides Gun Runner in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.

WHO’S HOT

The Derby Watch top 20 remained intact from last week, but the odds on several runners changed, most notably Cupid, whose impressive victory in the Rebel Stakes caused Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, to lower his odds to 12-1 from last week’s 30-1, making him the co-fourth choice on Watchmaker’s line for the May 7 Kentucky Derby. Whitmore, the Rebel runner-up, also saw his price lowered to 20-1 from last week’s 30-1.

NEW ORLEANS – Nine 3-year-olds, including stakes winners Abiding Star, Governor Malibu, and Surgical Strike, were made eligible to the Triple Crown with a payment of $6,000 that was due Monday, Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, announced Wednesday.

The other six are American Pioneer, Cards of Stone, Isofass, Lookin for a Kiss, My Man Sam, and Zapperini, who is entered in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby here at Fair Grounds on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS – Uncle Walter couldn’t have run much worse than he did in the Risen Star Stakes, where he was beaten 41 lengths by the victorious Gun Runner. Trainer Mike Maker would love to offer an excuse for the debacle, but he can’t find one.

“It’s a throw-out,” said Maker. “I don’t have a lot of explanation.”

As we hit the final Saturday of March, six weeks before the Kentucky Derby, I am going to use a 95 Beyer Speed Figure as the cutoff for contenders. I count nine horses on that list, from a high of 101 (Nyquist) to a low of 95 (Cupid, Mohaymen). It is interesting, if nowhere near conclusive, that the unbeaten 2-year-old male champion is at the top of the list and the likely Derby favorite (Mohaymen) if the race was this Saturday is at the bottom.

Under a plan approved Tuesday by Kentucky’s racing commission, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., will split its pick six carryover pool this year at its spring meeting if the bet is not hit on Kentucky Derby Day, when the pool typically attracts more than $1 million in bets.

Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Oaklawn, March 19, 2016
(50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)

Winner: Cupid, by Tapit

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Jockey: Martin Garcia

Owner: Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith

Beyer Speed Figure: 95