©2015 Calvin L.
Carter. All rights reserved.
This
Saturday, with three marquee races on tap, the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” enters the stretch drive
taking us to Kentucky, New York and California where winners of those three
races will each receive 100 qualifying points and a guaranteed spot in Derby
starting gate on the first Saturday in May.
At
Santa Anita Park in California, Dortmund been tabbed as the 3-5 morning
line favorite in the 78th running of the $1 million Santa Anita
Derby (G1). Post Time is 6:30 p.m. ET and
the race will be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network from 5:00-7:00 p.m. ET.
Dortmund,
ranked sixth in Kentucky Derby point standings, comes into this race undefeated
in five starts for trainer Bob Baffert and, without question, he is the
deserving favorite. His perfect run includes wins in the Los Alamitos Futurity
(G1), Robert B. Lewis (G3) and the Sand Felipe (G2) stakes. A big win Saturday
could make him the Derby favorite.
Like
most everyone else, I’ll be watching to see how well he runs in the Santa Anita
Derby (G1).
Prospect Park (7-2),
currently 20th in point standings, perhaps is the only horse in this
herd that can pull the upset over Dortmund. The only time they’ve ran against each
other was in the San Felipe (G2) where Dortmund won by 1¼ lengths over a fast
closing Prospect Park.
Prospect
Park comes into this race with a 2-2-1 record in six starts for trainer
Clifford Sise and he has room to improve in his third start of the season. Sise
and jockey Kent Desormeaux are optimistic about the chances of Prospect Park in
the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and you can read more about that here.
I
look for Prospect Park to run a good race.
One Lucky Dane (5-1) and
Bolo (4-1) both have good
speed and if they can carry that speed to nine furlongs they could be a factor
in this race.
One
Lucky Dane comes into this race for Baffert with a 2-1-1 record in five starts
and he’ll need a first or second place finish in order to qualify for the Derby.
Bolo, also will need to finish first or second and he comes into this race with
a 2-0-1 record in four starts for trainer Carla Gaines.
The
Santa Anita Derby (G1) has been won by Baffert a record six times and this race
has a rich history of producing quality competitors in the Kentucky Derby. You
can read more about the history of this race in the 2015
Media Guide.
*****
The
winner of the Santa Anita Derby (G1) will receive 100 points, second-place
finisher will receive 40 points, third-place finisher will get 20 points and
fourth-place finisher will get 10 points.
Here’s
a look at the current top twenty Derby qualifiers
2015 KENTUCKY DERBY LEADERBOARD
Individual Leaders ranking,
total points, Trainer, Non-Restricted Stakes Earnings
1. International
Star, 171, Mike Maker, $940,979
2. Mubtaahij
(IRE), 100, Mike de Kock, $1,400,000
3. Materiality,
100, Todd Pletcher, $632,028
4. Upstart, 76,
Rick Violette Jr., $807,680
5. El Kabeir, 75,
John Terranova II, $620,792
6. Dortmund, 70,
Bob Baffert, $630,000
7. Carpe Diem, 64, Todd Pletcher,
$870,000
8. American
Pharoah, 60, Bob Baffert, $810,000
9. Itsaknockout,
60, Todd Pletcher, $288,560
10. Firing Line,
58, Simon Callaghan, $530,000
11. *Dubai Sky,
50, Bill Mott, $371,780
12. War Story,
44, Tom Amoss, $195,000
13. Maftool, 40, Saeed bin Suroor, $$630,595
14. Ami’s Flatter, 40, Josie Carroll, $195,200
15. Stanford, 40, Todd Pletcher, $151,400
16. Conquest
Typhoon, 26, Mark Casse, $430,827
17. Far Right, 22, Ron Moquett, $385,906
18. Keen Ice, 22, Dale Romans, $136,520
19. Madefromlucky, 20, Todd Pletcher, $150,000
20. Prospect
Park, 20, Cliff Sise, Jr., $80,000
20. *Tiz Shea D,
20, Bill Mott, $80,000
* Late nominations to the Kentucky
Derby.
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