Trainer Jinks Fires already has one 3-year-old in a good position to make the Kentucky Derby in Archarcharch. After the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on Sunday, he hopes to have another. Fires will send out Supreme Ruler in the 1 1/8-mile race, which drew a field of 11 when entries were taken on Wednesday.
Garrett Gomez will ride Silver Medallion in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9, trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday.
Silver Medallion won the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in his last start, with Russell Baze aboard. Since then, a majority interest in Silver Medallion was sold, but Asmussen has remained his trainer.
Should Silver Medallion win the Santa Anita Derby, he would be in line for a $5.5 million bonus if he could also capture the Preakness Stakes.
FLORENCE, Ky. – By finishing fourth as a 13-1 shot in his only start in a graded race, Thirtyfirststreet hasn’t justified any of his owners catching Kentucky Derby fever.
But that all could change Saturday at Turfway Park, where Thirtyfirststreet, a California-bred colt trained by Doug O’Neill, will be part of a wide-open field of Derby aspirants in the 40th running of the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes.
Billy Morey amassed more than 1,000 wins in less than a decade during a remarkably swift rise among the ranks of North American trainers. Based in Northern California, Morey ventured out of town for one of his more notable victories a few weeks ago, and on Saturday, he will try for his greatest yet when sending out Positive Response in the $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Losing a Kentucky Derby hopeful is never easy, although in some cases, it can be reasoned away. George and Lori Hall recently sold Sweet Ducky to foreign interests for “a lot of money,” according to their private trainer, Kelly Breen, in a move primarily intended to maintain a semblance of fiscal feasibility in their multi-million dollar Thoroughbred operation.
“In a way, it’s a shame because we had a horse that could go a distance and was all set to have a big spring,” Breen said. “But when you can turn a profit, you need to turn a profit.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Factor put up his third triple-digit Beyer Figure in a row Saturday with a 6 1/4-length win the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn, and in the process stamped himself as a leading candidate for the Kentucky Derby.
The Rebel was his first test at two turns, and he earned a Beyer of 103.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Soldat pretty much had everything his own way on the front end in each of his two victories here this winter, including the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. But trainer Kiaran McLaughlin knows things are going to be different as Soldat moves further along the Kentucky Derby trail, and especially if he’s fortunate to make it into the Derby itself.
In Robert Burns’s poem, To a Mouse, the author notes “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley [often go awry].”
We shall hope, for Elite Alex’s sake, that trainer Tim Ritchey’s decision to bypass last week’s Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in favor for this Saturday’s Grade 2, $1,000,000 Louisiana Derby does not prove the old saying correct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two days after the March 5 Gotham Stakes, the connections of the runner-up, Norman Asbjornson, and third-place finisher, Toby’s Corner, indicated they would look more at the Illinois Derby than the Wood Memorial for their horses’ next starts.
Two weeks later, there appears to be a change of heart.
In 2007, trainer Al Stall Jr. sent out the lightly raced Ketchikan to a second-place finish in the Louisiana Derby. Same time, next year, Stall again finished second in the Louisiana Derby with another lightly raced colt, My Pal Charlie. Stall will be at it again this Saturday, sending out the unbeaten Left in only his third start in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, highlight of a sensational card at Fair Grounds.
