©2017 Calvin L.
Carter. All rights reserved.
The
Road to the Kentucky Derby takes us to California,
Saturday, where Gormley will go to the starting gate
as the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Sham Stakes (G3) at Santa
Anita Park.
Gormley
comes into this race for trainer John Sherriffs with a 2-0-0 record in three
starts, including a three length win in the FrontRunner Stakes (G1) and a
seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes (G1), both at Santa
Anita Park. Here’s the video and chart call of the FrontRunner. Here’s the video and chart call of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Stakes (G1):
GORMLEY
bobbled at the break, recovered to move up four wide, continued four wide
stalking the pace, remained a factor to the quarter pole then dropped back.
It’s
hard to say why Gormley ran so poorly. With an A Classic Champion Thoroughbred Profile® Gormley was one of the best
bred colts in the Juvenile and his performance in the FrontRunner indicates
that he can do better.
When
horses like Gormley fail to run close to their Classic Champion Thoroughbred
Profile® score, then the issue[s] preventing them from reaching their full
potential needs to be investigated. And there can be many contributing factors for
a horse not running to his profile score – Effinex is a good example of that.
Malibu
Moon, the sire
of Gormley, made only two starts as a two year old, compiling a 1-1-0 record,
before a slab fracture ended his racing career.
At
stud, Malibu Moon sired the
2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb. In addition, he’s sired several horses
that have been competitive on the Derby trail such as Danzig
Moon, Mr.
Z and Stanford. Other nice runners sired by Malibu
Moon include Life At Ten, Devil May Care, Declan’s
Moon, Ask
the Moon,
Prospective, Kauai
Katie,
Moon Catcher and Malibu
Mint.
With
a two month break, Gormley might be ready to start anew and he’s been training
well at Santa Anita. If he lives up to his breeding, he has the potential to be
competitive as a three year old and I look for him to run a good race in the
Sham Stakes (G3).
With
only a maiden win to his credit, American Anthem (9-5) has yet to run in a route race and he’s
stepping up in class for Hall of Fame Trainer Bob Baffert. Here’s the video and chart call of his maiden win:
AMERICAN ANTHEM
stalked three deep on the backstretch and turn, continued outside a rival until
the stretch, drifted in some then was straightened and rallied under urging to
get up on the line.
Baffert
must have a lot of faith in this young son of Bodemeister to earn graded stakes honors
in just his second start. Baffert also trained Bodemeister, however, he raced
twice in the maiden ranks before finishing second in his third start, the San
Felipe Stakes (G2).
In
his fourth start, Baffert shipped Bodemeister to Oaklawn Park where he was my pick to win the Arkansas Derby
(G1). Bodemeister trounced the field, winning by an outstanding 9½ lengths. He
then went on to finish second in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness
Stakes (G1).
American
Anthem has room to improve in his second start and I look for him to run a good
race.
Big
Hit (4-1) and Bird is the Word (20-1) also has good breeding and look good in
this race. In his last race, Big Hit easily defeated Little Juanito who finished second by a neck to American Anthem.
Here’s the video of Big Hit’s last race.
Bird
is the Word is a talented son of Birdstone but he’ll need to pick up the
pace in order to score the win. Here’s the video of his last race.
*****
Under
the points system implemented by Churchill Downs to determine which horses will
qualify to enter the Kentucky Derby starting gate, the winner of the Sham
Stakes (G3) will receive 10 points, the second-place finisher will receive 4
points, the third-place finisher will receive 2 points and the fourth-place
finisher will receive one point. Here’s a look at the current top twenty Derby
qualifiers:
2017 KENTUCKY DERBY LEADERBOARD
Ranking, total points, Trainer,
Non-Restricted Stakes Earnings
1. Classic
Empire, 30, Mark Casse, $1,459,520
2. Practical
Joke, 14, Chad Brown, $690,000
3. Gunnevera, 10,
Antonio Sano, $738,600
4. Lookin At Lee,
10, Steve Asmussen, $275,600
5. Mastery, 10,
Bob Baffert, $240,000
6. Gormley, 10,
John Sherriffs, $200,000
7. Mo Town, 10,
Tony Dutrow, $180,000
8. McCraken, 10,
Ian Wilkes, $165,048
9. El Areeb, 10,
Cathal Lynch, $150,000
10. Wild Shot, 6,
Rusty Arnold, II, $87,200
11. No Dozing, 5,
Arnaud Delacour, $85,000
12. Klimt, 4, Bob
Baffert, $380,000
13. Hot Sean, 4,
Bob Baffert, $180,000
14. Dangerfield,
2, Doug O’Neill, $168,500
15. Syndergaard,
4, Todd Pletcher, $160,000
16. Irap, 4, Doug
O’Neill, $60,000
17. Bonus Points,
4, Todd Pletcher, $40,000
18. Straight
Fire, 2, Keith Desormeaux, $96,000
19. Favorable
Outcome, 2, Chad Brown, $50,345
20. Recruiting
Ready, 2, Horacio DePaz, $43,750
In
addition to the current top 20, Churchill Downs has partnered with the Japan
Racing Association to feature the Cattleya Sho Stakes and Hayacinth Stakes as
two qualifying races in the Japan Road to the Kentucky
Derby. The
horse with the most points from those races will receive an invitation to
compete in the 2017 Kentucky Derby.
2017 JAPAN ROAD TO KENTUCKY
DERBY LEADERBOARD
Ranking, total points, Trainer
1.
Mont Saint Legame (JPN), 40, Koji Maki
2.
Caucus (JPN), 16, Hideaki Fujiwara
3.
Blane Eclat, 8, Ryo Takei
4.
Lavapies (JPN), 4, Ryuji Okub
Nice!
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