WHO’S HOT

While Mark Casse will be represented Saturday by Determinedly in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds, the Hall of Fame trainer has updates on the two 3-year-olds he ran last Saturday in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Classic Car Wash “was a pretty good third” behind Litigate and Groveland in the Sam Davis, which likely will get him a return trip to Oldsmar, Fla., for the Tampa Bay Derby on March 11, Casse said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Skinner, Grade 1-placed as a maiden 2-year-old last summer, jumped into the Derby picture with an emphatic maiden win Feb. 12 at Santa Anita, his first start since October. Skinner won the mile race by more than three lengths with a noteworthy 95 Beyer Speed Figure.

John Shirreffs, who trains the son of Curlin for owners Lee and Susan Searing, said Skinner was immature last season.

“In the beginning, everything was new to him,” he said. “He wasn’t really established and secure in his position, in his training.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Practical Move, upset winner of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, will launch his 3-year-old campaign in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 4 at Santa Anita, skipping the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on Feb. 28 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Tim Yakteen confirmed.

“You prefer to run out of your backyard,” Yakteen said Saturday at Santa Anita, where Practical Move smoked five furlongs in 59 seconds, the day’s fastest five-furlong work. It was a super work over the Santa Anita surface he will race over in his comeback

According to the betting public participating in Pool 4 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Sunday night, trainer Tom Amoss’s best hope for the 2023 Derby runs not in the Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds but in the filly-restricted Rachel Alexandra.

Hoosier Philly, the unbeaten 3-year-old filly trained by Amoss, makes her season’s debut in the Rachel Alexandra after attracting surprising support in the latest future pool, where she closed at 11-1. Only champion 2-year-old male Forte at 8-1 was a shorter price among individual horses.

Pool 4 in the 2023 Kentucky Derby Future Wager closed Sunday evening following the customary three-day run with the mutuel field once again a clear-cut favorite among 40 wagering options.

The field, the 40th or “all others” option, was a 2-1 choice over reigning divisional champion Forte (8-1) and the only filly in the lineup, Hoosier Philly (11-1), following the customary three-day window of betting. Then came Tapit Trice (15-1), Instant Coffee (22-1), Victory Formation (23-1), and Geaux Rocket Ride (25-1). Thirteen of the 39 individual interests closed at 90-1 or higher.

$101,350 El Camino Real, Feb. 11, 2023
[10 qualifying points for first, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, and 1 for fifth]

Winner: Chase the Chaos, by Astern
Trainer: Ed Moger Jr.
Jockey: Armando Ayuso
Owner: Adam Ference and Bill Dory
Distance / time: 1 1/8 miles Tapeta / 1:51.68
Win margin: 1 1/2 lengths
Beyer: 83

$250,000 Withers Stakes, Feb. 11, 2023
[20 qualifying points for first, 8 for second, 6 for third, 4 for fourth, and 2 for fifth]

Winner: Hit Show, by Candy Ride
Trainer: Brad Cox
Jockey: Manny Franco
Owner: Gary and Mary West
Distance / time: 1 1/8 miles / 1:54.71
Win margin: 5 1/2 lengths
Beyer: 91 

$200,000 Sam Davis Stakes, Feb. 11, 2023
[20 qualifying points for first, 8 for second, 6 for third, 4 for fourth, and 2 for fifth]

Winner: Litigate, by Blame
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Luis Saez
Owner: Centennial Farms
Distance / time: 1 1/16 miles / 1:44.83
Win margin: 1 1/4
Beyer: 77 

ARCADIA, Calif. – An untimely setback to the improving 3-year-old colt Newgate has knocked the Bob Baffert trainee off the Kentucky Derby trail.

Days after Newgate won the highly rated Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 at Santa Anita, racing manager Tom Ryan announced Friday on Twitter that Newgate has been sidelined with a “minor hock issue.”