As the Kentucky Derby preps move to 1 1/8 miles, distance can become a stumbling block for many 3-year-olds. But the trainers of both Castaway and Daddy Nose Best welcome the distance of Sunday’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby.
“I think Castaway will like the mile and an eighth,” Bob Baffert said.
“The distance definitely seems to suit Daddy Nose Best,” said Steve Asmussen.
He said it and nailed it on the nose.
“Eight hundred thousand isn’t what it used to be,” insisted Dustin Dix, Sunland Park director of racing operations and the man who put together the $800,000 Sunland Derby, to be run Sunday at Sunland Park.
As long as the prospective stakes fields hold together during the next week, Fair Grounds’s 2011-2012 race meeting is going out with a loud bang.
A field that might swell to 13, headed by Risen Star stakes runner-up Mark Valeski, is expected for the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, the featured race on the Sunday, April 1 finale, while the $500,000 New Orleans Handicap could wind up with the deepest cast in the older-route-horse division so far this season.
Countdown to the Crown returns for a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.
Keeneland’s meet is still two weeks away, but horseplayers can get an early taste of the handicapping challenges presented at Keeneland with a look at Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park.
The Triple Crown season starts for real this weekend. How do I know? Follow the money.
On Saturday, at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes offers a purse of $500,000. On Sunday, just down the road from El Paso and across the New Mexico state line, there will be $800,000 up for grabs in the Sunland Park Derby. Is this a great country or what?
FLORENCE, Ky. – Funny how one horse can do so much for one race. When Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby last year, the Churchill Downs suite where the sponsors of the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes were watching virtually exploded.
“It was a pretty wild time,” said Bob Elliston, the Turfway Park president who watched the Derby alongside Vinery principals Tom Simon and Tom Ludt.
Hansen will likely make his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Blue Grass rather than the Wood Memorial, his owner said Thursday. The news led trainer Kiaran McLaughlin to say Alpha will be shipped back to New York for the Wood rather than run in the Louisiana Derby.
Hansen’s owner and namesake, Dr. Kendall Hansen, said he probably won’t confirm the move until next week, but that “it’s very probable” the colt will make his next start in the $750,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 14 rather than one week earlier in the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as originally scheduled.
A soft spot in the stakes schedule enables Turfway Park to command center stage Saturday with its key Kentucky Derby prep, the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Spiral Stakes, the race that proved the springboard to success for last year’s Derby winner, Animal Kingdom. Among the handful of stakes on the Spiral undercard are the Grade 3, $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks and the $75,000 Rushaway.
There are only two other graded stakes Saturday, and they are both Grade 3, 1 1/2 mile races: the $150,000 Pan American on the turf at Gulfstream Park and the $100,000 Tokyo City Cup at Santa Anita.
Leonard Blach and trainer Tim Ice were adversaries during the 2009 Triple Crown series, when Blach co-raced Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Ice sent out Summer Bird to take the Belmont Stakes.
Sunday, the men will be on the same team. No Spin, co-owned by Blach and trained by Ice, is one of eight 3-year-olds set to start in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby. Entries for the 1 1/8-mile race were drawn on Wednesday.
