HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Mark Casse is pointing Conquest Titan and Thundergram to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, and the horses give him a two-pronged approach to the April 12 race. Thundergram has done his best work on the front end, while Conquest Titan is a deep closer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – By sunset Saturday, Social Inclusion could be the favorite for the Kentucky Derby or he could be a fading memory.
A late-comer to the scene, Social Inclusion has impressed with two eye-catching victories in a 19-day span at Gulfstream Park, including a 10-length victory over the Grade 2 winner Honor Code in a race in which he set a track record of 1:40.97 for 1 1/16 miles.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
John Sadler, the trainer of Candy Boy, and Lee Searing, who owns Candy Boy with his wife, Susan, knew it was a calculated risk to manage Candy Boy the way they have this spring, running him in a Kentucky Derby prep worth 10 points for first, skipping one worth 50 points to the winner, and then knowing that a race worth 100 for first would determine their fate for the May 3 Derby.
It is high risk, but it could also be high reward.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Schoolofhardrocks had finished a well-beaten fourth in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 8 when jockey Joe Talamo immediately began campaigning for a start in Saturday’s $1 million Santa Anita Derby.
The San Felipe Stakes was the second career start for Schoolofhardrocks, who beat maidens impressively at Del Mar last summer. Concern over an ankle kept him from racing for six months, but Talamo saw enough in the San Felipe to argue for the Santa Anita Derby.
If California Chrome performs the way Art Sherman thinks he can Saturday in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby, look out.
Here comes Art Sherman.
If he wins Saturday, California Chrome would be heading to the May 3 Kentucky Derby as one of the favorites. This would not be unusual. Any Santa Anita Derby winner, barring the rankest of longshots, heads to Louisville as a horse to watch – even if his trainer is a 77-year-old Derby rookie.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Action Andy shipped down from his winter home at Tampa Bay Downs to dominate a good field of high-priced optional-claiming competition here three weeks ago. He’ll make the four-hour trip back to Gulfstream Park to face a similarly conditioned but seemingly tougher lineup that includes the Grade 3-placed Valid and multiple stakes winner Managed Account in Friday’s $54,500 allowance headliner at seven furlongs.
The field for the annual spring marquee at Keeneland, the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes, is coming up big, with perhaps the 14-horse limit having to be invoked.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Pretty soon you can just call him “Doctor Ramsey.”
Ken Ramsey has been such a phenomenal success as a racehorse owner and businessman that he is being conferred with an honorary doctorate degree.
“I just found out [Tuesday], and it brought tears to my eyes,” Ramsey said this week from his farm in nearby Nicholasville.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Strong Mandate put in his major work for the Arkansas Derby on Tuesday morning, when he went five furlongs in 1:00.80 under regular exercise rider Alberto Rodriguez. He drilled in the second set after the renovation break, with Oaklawn head clocker Hamilton catching the horse through an opening eighth of a mile in 11.80 seconds, a first quarter in 23.40, and three furlongs in 35.80.
Strong Mandate was joined in the stretch by a stablemate, and the pair worked on to the wire while finishing on even terms.
