Sunday Morning Coming Down

The last two derby prep races will be run on Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and Keeneland in Kentucky. The Arkansas Derby is a $1,000,000 race ad winning it will give you enough points to enter the Kentucky Derby. Many really good horses have run and won the Arkansas Derby, and gone on to win the Kentucky Derby.  The first Arkansas Derby was run in 1936.  Two of the biggest names in horse racing ran in the Arkansas Derby and deserve special mention : American Pharoah who went on the be the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years and Curlin who was a two time Horse of the Year in 2007 and 2008 after winning the Preakness Stakes, the Breeder's Cup Classic in 2007 and the Dubai World Cup in 2008. The 2018 Arkansas Derby will feature the top three finishers in the Rebel Stakes: Magnum Moon, Solomini, and Combatant and the winner of the Tampa Bay Derby Quip.  The winner will most likely come out of that group. The Lexington Stakes is a $200,000 race worth 20 point...

The Wood Memorial, the Santa Anita Derby, and the Bluegrass Stakes will be run Saturday and if all goes well Good Magic will win the Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland, Bolt d'Oro will win the Santa Anita Derby on the West Coast, and Enticed will win the Wood Memorial which is run at Aqueduct in New York. The Arkansas Derby will be run next Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and the probable favorite in that race will be Solomini. The Wood Memorial is named after Eugene Wood, the President of Jamaica Raceway where the race was originally run.  Irish War Cry won the 2017 Wood Memorial.  The race is worth $1,000,000. The race at a 1 1/8 mile will have nine contenders and the other potential winners along with Enticed are Fireneze Fire and Vino Rosso. The Bluegrass Stakes will have a full field of 14 hoping to get enough points to get to the Kentucky Derby.  The winner of the 2017 Bluegrass was Irap and it has been a while since a horse won the Bluegrass and the Kentuck...

There are two major prep races for the Kentucky Derby this weekend.  The Sunland Park Derby will be contested on Sunday and the Louisiana Derby will take place on Saturday.  Sunland Park is located near El Paso, Texas while the Louisiana Derby will be held at the Fair Grounds which is in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sunland Park's derby is an $800,000, 1 1/8 mile affair.  Mine That Bird is probably the most notorious horse to have run at Sunland Park.  In the days before points Mine that Bird finished 4th in Sunland Derby and 2nd in the Borderland Derby in 2009.  He went on to win the Kentucky Derby, finish 2nd in the Preakness, and 3rd in the Belmont. The 2018 Sunland Derby is a very very wide open race. The comment from Horse Racing Nation say it all:   "All Out Blitz and Hollywood Star look like the logical top win contenders here, with either of them ready to prove themselves Kentucky Derby-ready. The former has shown consistency and should ...

The Rebel Stakes is the 2nd of three  big Kentucky Derby Prep Races run at Oaklawn Park this year.  The race run at  a 1 1/16 mile, the purse is $900,000, grade ll and the race is worth 50 points on the road to the Kentucky Derby.  It is also the final prep race for the Grade l Arkansas Derby. American Pharoah won the 2015 Rebel on the way to the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown.  Curlin and Smarty Jones have also won the Rebel which was established in 1961. Bob Baffert trains the likely favorite Solomini.  Baffert has won six of the last eight Rebel Stakes.  Trainers Todd Pletcher, D. Wayne Lucas, and Steve Asmussen will challenge Bob Baffert. The results in the Rebel will do much to clarify the Derby picture, the field is deep and the winner should be very worthy. 

Turfway Park used to be called Latonia Race Course and The Jeff Ruby Steaks used to be called the Spiral Stakes that lead to the Keeneland Blue Grass Stakes.  The race is worth forty points to the winner and that may be enough to earn a ticket to Churchill Downs. Fast and Accurate won last year's race and went to the Kentucky Derby where he finished 17th. March 17, 2018 will be a big day at Turfway Park.  The Jeff Ruby Steaks is a mile and 1 and 1/8 and the purse is $200,000.  There are six stakes races scheduled for the day.  Dale Roman and Todd Pletcher both have probable entries for the race better known as the Spiral Stakes. Big name trainers have owners that spent big bucks and have dreams of running in the Kentucky Derby.  At this point there doesn't seem to be a clear cut favorite and for that reason you might check out the Spiral Stakes for another contender.

There are three major prep races for the 2018 Kentucky derby on March 10, 2018 at Tampa Bay Downs, Aqueduct, and Santa Anita.   Last week’s winner of the Fountain of Youth, at Gulfstream, Promises Fulfilled lit up the tote board winning wire to wire paying $38.40 to win.   Good Magic, the short money favorite finished 3 rd and probably needed the race. The Gotham is understandably run at the Big A (Aqueduct) in New York.   The race has produced several Kentucky Winners and the winner will most likely go to the Kentucky Derby.   Secretariat won the Gotham in 1973.   The race has been run since 1953, the purse is $400,000 and the favorite is Firenze Fire, trained by Jason Servis but there will be other contenders for the 100 points and the ticket to Louisville. The Lambsholm Tampa Bay Derby, Florida’s second derby and a grade II race since 2011 is run at Tampa Bay Downs, the purse is $350,000.   The field is a wide open with trainers Pletcher, M...

The Fountain of Youth is run at 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park.  It is a prep race for the Florida Derby and awards 50 points to the winner towards qualifying for the Kentucky Derby.  The race will be run on Saturday, March 3, 2018.  The purse is $400,000. The race is named for the elusive spring of eternal youth which the explorer Ponce de Leon searched for unsuccessfully. Previous winners of the Fountain of Youth, Orb, Tim Tam, Kauai King, Thunder Gulch went on to win the Kentucky Derby. If you win this race you will most likely have enough points to run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. The probable favorite for the race will be Good Magic who won the Breeder's Cup Juvenile in 2017.  Other possible contenders are Marconi, Free Drop Billy, Storm Runner, and Strike Power. The winner will probably run in the Florida Derby on March 31, 2018.  The purse for the Florida Derby is $1,000,000 and is run at 1 1/8 mile. Lot's of things can ha...