Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Game Winner, Improbable top two divisions of Rebel Stakes
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The top Kentucky Derby prospects Game Winner and Improbable will lead separate divisions of the Grade 2 Rebel on Saturday at Oaklawn Park. The races are part of a program of four stakes that includes the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri, which drew Elate, and the $350,000 Essex Handicap, led by Giant Expectations.
Oaklawn had announced last week that it would split the 1 1/16-mile Rebel into a pair of $750,000 divisions were it to draw at least 20 entrants, a move to help horsemen following the cancellation of the San Felipe at Santa Anita. As entries were taken Wednesday, Oaklawn president Lou Cella decided to split the race despite having only 19 horses entered, according to racing secretary Pat Pope.
Game Winner will start from post 5 in a field of 10 in the second division. It goes as the 10th race on an 11-race program that starts at 1 p.m. Central. Trainer Bob Baffert will ride Joel Rosario.
The field for the second division, from the rail and with riders, is Market King, John Velazquez; Laughing Fox, Ricardo Santana Jr.; Parsimony, Mario Gutierrez; Jersey Agenda, Jose Ortiz; Game Winner, Rosario; Omaha Beach, Mike Smith; Our Braintrust, David Cohen; Gunmetal Gray, Flavien Prat; Kaziranga, Richard Eramia; and Captain Von Trapp, Ramon Vazquez.
Improbable drew the outermost post in a field of nine in the first division. It goes as the eighth race. Baffert has given the mount to Drayden Van Dyke will ride.
The field is Extra Hope, Smith; Long Range Toddy, Jon Court; Corruze, Stewart Elliott; Easy Shot, Eramia; Proud Nation, David Cabrera; Ninth Street, Santana; Classy John, Cohen; Galilean, Prat; and Improbable, Van Dyke.
The Rebel will be the first Kentucky Derby points race to be run in divisions since the points system was put in place in 2013, according to Churchill Downs spokesman Darren Rogers.
The Rebel was originally scheduled as a $1 million race this year, up from $900,000 in 2018, with its top four finishers to receive points on a 50-20-10-5 basis. Now, with the purse for each division at 75 percent of the original purse, points in each division will be distributed 37.5-15-7.5-3.75. Pope said each division will retain Grade 2 status.
“We’re quite proud of the opportunity to allow not only the racing world but especially the fans of Arkansas to watch these Grade 2 preps for the Triple Crown trail,” Pope said Wednesday. “We’re also extremely pleased with how strong the Azeri and Essex came up.
“The weather looks good, so if you really love horses, you have to be here, or you have to watch us, this Saturday.”
The forecast is for clear skies and temperatures in the 60s. The infield is scheduled to be open for the first time this meet, weather permitting, track spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyt said.
Female sprint champion Shamrock Rose will meet fellow Grade 1 winners Elate, Eskimo Kisses, and Midnight Bisou in the six-horse Azeri. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares serves as the first of four consecutive stakes on the card.
Shamrock Rose, who will be ridden by David Cohen, is stretching back out around two turns following a 3-year-old campaign in which she won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Elate is launching her season, with Jose Ortiz to ride in her first out since August.
Following the Azeri, the first division of the Rebel will be run, with Oaklawn leading trainer Steve Asmussen sending out a pair in Long Range Toddy and Ninth Street. The Essex follows as the ninth race, with a field of nine older runners going 1 1/16 miles. Giant Expectations, a multiple Grade 2 winner who has earned $1.1 million, is the 119-pound highweight. Rosario is named to ride by trainer Peter Eurton.
Giant Expectations arrived Wednesday, invading from Southern California aboard a flight that also brought Sonneteer for the Essex. The plane landed in Little Rock, Ark., and the horses made the one-hour van ride to Oaklawn.
There were eight 3-yearolds on the flight for the Rebel, among them Game Winner, Improbable, Gunmetal Gray, and Galilean.
Following the Essex, the second division of the Rebel will be run, with Game Winner putting his perfect 4-for-4 career record on the line. The race will be his first since he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2. Baffert had intended to bring him out in the San Felipe. Game Winner, who races for Gary and Mary West, is an earner of $1.4 million.
His chief rivals include Gunmetal Gray and Our Braintrust. Asmussen will have four starters in the division – Laughing Fox, Jersey Agenda, Kaziranga, and Captain Von Trapp, giving him six of the 19 horses entered in the two Rebel divisions.
◗ Oaklawn Park has announced its third purse increase of the meet. It will add $1 million to overnight purses, retroactive to March 14, according to a press release issued Wednesday. The move puts maiden special weight races at $90,000 and no-conditions allowances at $95,000.
◗ Oaklawn leading rider Ricardo Santana Jr. will be back in the saddle Saturday after serving a three-day suspension for a riding infraction.