As the serious Kentucky Derby preps begin this Saturday with the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park, you can do this the hard way like me or just wait for the Derby Week pick of DRF national correspondent Jay Privman.
Starting with Barbaro 10 years ago, Jay has picked six of the last 10 Derby winners with one second, Pioneerof the Nile. Actually, I’ll give him seven. Mine That Bird did not really win in 2009, did he?
ARCADIA, Calif. – Nyquist is picking up in 2016 where he left off in 2015, at least in the morning.
The champion 2-year-old of 2015 after winning all five starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Nyquist posted a solid one-mile workout Sunday at Santa Anita and is on target for a Feb. 15 comeback in the Grade 2, seven-furlong San Vicente Stakes.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The rematch is on.
Discreetness and Gordy Florida, who finished a neck apart in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park, are both being pointed for next month’s Southwest Stakes, according to their trainers. The Grade 3, $500,000 race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles is Feb. 15.
$150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, one mile, Oaklawn Park, Jan. 18, 2016
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Discreetness (sire: Discreet Cat)
Trainer: Jinks Fires
Jockey: Jon Court
Owner: Xpress Thoroughbreds LLC
Beyer Speed Figure: 83
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Discreetness struck first in Oaklawn Park’s series for 3-year-olds on Monday, when he rallied for a neck win over Gordy Florida in the $150,000 Smarty Jones. It was another 1 3/4 lengths back in third to Synchrony.
Toews On Ice, the 3-5 favorite off his runner-up finish in the Los Alamitos Futurity, dueled for the lead early and finished sixth.
ARCADIA, Calif. – American Pharoah was honored with the Vox Populi Award on Saturday at Santa Anita, Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery was in the house, California Chrome returned to action, and the Sham Stakes was run. Yes, the aura of the Kentucky Derby hung over the track, and, appropriate of the scene, it was four-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert who shined with a couple of his 2016 Derby prospects.
Mo Tom, who won the Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs last year before finishing third there in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, is the most accomplished of the 15 3-year-olds entered for the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds.
Even though Dressed in Hermes has made his last four starts on turf, winning two stakes, trainer Janet Armstrong likes the way he has trained on dirt, which has earned Dressed in Hermes a start on Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
But how Dressed in Hermes will perform on an expected off track is a guess, Armstrong said.
