Al Stall entered two horses in the Risen Star Stakes but ran neither of them after Departing and Sunbean drew the outside posts in a field that originally numbered 15.
Departing remains on track to start Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park in the $50,000 Texas Heritage Stakes, but Sunbean could be in line for a Louisiana Derby run after another good-looking two-turn victory on Saturday’s card.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Oxbow could have two more starts before the Kentucky Derby depending how many qualifiying points it apears he will need, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Tuesday. One possible approach, he said, is to look at the Louisiana Derby on March 30 and the Arkansas Derby on April 13. Both races offer 100 points to the winner on the new system governing Kentucky Derby preference if the May 4 race is oversubscribed.
David Wilkenfeld has already made the score of a lifetime that most horseplayers can only dream about. In 2008, he had the sole winning ticket of a $3.3 million pick six at Santa Anita.
Five years later, Wilkenfeld is on the cusp of being able to live the dream that virtually every horse owner wants to experience. As the owner of Vyjack, Wilkenfeld has an undefeated 3-year-old who could be on his way to the Kentucky Derby.
To commit to the life of a trainer, there are no days off, no overtime pay, little time to even mope, so Todd Pletcher was back at work on Monday, overseeing workouts of five of his potential Kentucky Derby prospects at the Palm Meadows training center. But he still hadn’t recovered from the body blow of Sunday, when he reported that Violence, the future book favorite for the May 4 Kentucky Derby, had come out of Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park with a career-ending injury.
Trainer Eddie Kenneally said he is leaning toward turning Majestic Hussar back to one-turn races after the speedy colt set lightning-fast fractions before tiring to finish fourth while making his two-turn debut in the Fountain of Youth. Majestic Hussar ran a 45.45-second opening half-mile and a 1:08.85 three-quarters before fading to finish 9 1/4 lengths behind Orb.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey said he is trying not to worry about the Kentucky Derby just yet, even after watching his top 3-year-old, Orb, upset Violence in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth to all but assure himself a spot in the big dance on May 3. But the Hall of Fame horseman does admit that the Derby has crossed his mind at least once or twice this winter.
“I don’t get Derby fever,” McGaughey said Sunday. “But don’t think I’m not excited, because I am.”
Bob Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby three times and is one of the more popular figures in Thoroughbred racing. Year in and year out, his 3-year-olds undergo intense scrutiny.
This year’s crop has already been under the media’s microscope as Baffert-trained sophomores Flashback (Robert B. Lewis), Super Ninety Nine (Southwest), and Shakin It Up (San Vicente) all earned graded stakes victories.
Code West, Den’s Legacy, and Manando, while perhaps not Baffert’s first string, made their presences felt with placings in graded events.
A bruised foot will prevent Demonic from making his stakes debut in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 at Santa Anita, trainer John Sadler said.
The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes is run over 1 1/16 miles and is a key prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Sadler said that he has no specific plans for Demonic this spring.
Violence, who suffered the first loss of his career when second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, fractured a sesamoid bone in his right front ankle, and his racing career is in jeopardy, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday morning.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Pletcher said the fracture would not require surgery. He said Violence was "resting comfortably" in his stall at the Palm Meadows training center.
The anatomy of Ive Struck a Nerve’s 135-1 upset in the Risen Star Stakes began forming not long after the colt’s fading fourth-place finish in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds. In the Lecomte, trainer Keith Desormeaux saw a colt fighting his rider, a horse who declined to switch off early and finish late, the way his trainer wanted Ive Struck a Nerve to race. It was a problem dating to this past summer, when Ive Struck a Nerve became rank and aggressive when Desormeaux first stretched him out to two turns.
