Whoever wins Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby and Wood Memorial will immediately join the ranks of favorites for the Kentucky Derby on May 5, if they aren’t there already. They will also, however, be joining a list of horses that for two decades now has amassed an astounding record of disappointment and defeat at Churchill Downs.
Mid-Atlantic-based trainer Mike Trombetta came to Hawthorne Race Course in 2006 with a relatively unproven 3-year-old named Sweetnorthernsaint. The questions being asked of Hakama, Trombetta’s entrant in Saturday’s Illinois Derby, are the same as were asked of Sweetnorthernsaint: Can he get the distance? Is he good enough?
“I remember having these same conversations about six years ago,” Trombetta said.
Those dice being rolled Saturday in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby are in the hands of Paul Reddam, the owner of I’ll Have Another, who must come up with a big effort if he is going to make it into the field for the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.
Hawthorne racing officials last weekend were forecasting an overflow field for the Illinois Derby, but anyone in the racing game knows that stakes field-size estimates coming from a race's host track tend toward optimism.
This time, they weren't exaggerating.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Bob McNair no longer maintains the presence he once did in Thoroughbred racing, the sport is never far from his consciousness.
While he is preoccupied this week with meetings for the upcoming NFL draft, McNair, owner of the Houston Texans franchise, will take time out Saturday afternoon to watch Street Life run in the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Nine days removed from having a heart attack, and fewer than 24 hours after arriving back in California from Dubai, trainer Bob Baffert strolled into Santa Anita on Wednesday morning, his humor still intact.
“Back to work,” he said. “I feel like a hundred bucks.”
Whether or not Saturday’s 76th running of the Santa Anita Derby produces a winner worth talking about years from now remains to be seen. For $750,000 it should at least be a good show, featuring such ambitious young runners as Creative Cause, Liaison, Midnight Transfer, and I’ll Have Another.
The bar, though, has been set pretty high as history goes. Here are five Santa Anita Derbies among the 75 run that still reverberate to this day:
Optimizer, the runner-up in the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel at Oaklawn, remains on target for the Arkansas Derby and could have his final work for the race on Tuesday, said his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. Optimizer had a major work here Monday, going six furlongs in 1:12.60 under jockey Jon Court.
“It was an outstanding work,” said Lukas. “I wanted it to be a little more significant, not a maintenance work. I wanted him to finish and he did. He came home in 23 and change.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Undefeated Gemologist drew post 6 in a field of eight 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
[WOOD MEMORIAL: News updates, contender replays, watch the race live]
