STRONG FAVORITES WIN BIG KENTUCKY DERBY PREPS

The Kentucky Derby picture became a little clearer Saturday when two strong favorites posted impressive victories — Essential Quality by 41⁄4 lengths in the $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, and Greatest Honour by 11⁄2-lengths in the $300,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Essential Quality ($3.80), a son of Tapit trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez, is hoping to become the third name on a list that includes Street Sense and Nyquist as horses that have won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Kentucky Derby.

Racing just off the pace Saturday until midway on the far turn, Essential Quality moved even with the leaders and then romped home. Spielberg, the $1 million purchase in the Bob Baffert barn, ran a strong second after a terrible break out of the gate to put himself back in the Kentucky Derby picture.

Jackie’s Warrior, once considered the favorite for the Derby last year, faded to third after leading the first part of the race. The race did nothing to build confidence in his Derby hopes.

In the Fountain of Youth, favored Greatest Honour came from well of the pace to earn the win and 50 Derby points, making him a lock to get in the Derby even if he doesn’t run another race (although he is expected to start March 27 in the Florida Derby).

Greatest Honour ($4), another son of Tapit, defeated runner-up Drain the Clock and eight others.

Boxing

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOS) outclassed Avni Yildirim (21-3) and retained his world super-middleweight titles with a technical knockout after Yildirim failed to answer the bell for the fourth round in Las Vegas.

Alvarez, of Mexico, dropped the Turkish challenger with a left-right combination to the head midway through the third round. Alvarez followed with additional combinations, pinning Yildirim on the ropes. Yildirim survived the round but absorbed sufficient punishment that forced his trainer Joel Diaz to stop the fight.

With the victory, Alvarez successfully defended his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association belts.

Soccer

Manchester City keeps on winning in its surge to the Premier League title. Brighton keeps on finding creative ways to lose in its plunge toward the relegation zone.

With a scrappy 2-1 victory over West Ham, City extended its winning run to 20 games in all competitions and established a 13-point lead that seems destined to end in the club’s fifth top-flight title in 10 years.

The fact that City’s goals came from its two center backs — Ruben Dias and John Stones — highlighted the difficulty the leaders had at Etihad Stadium against a fourth-placed West Ham side showing its unlikely bid for Champions League qualification is no fluke.

• Lionel Messi scored after setting up Ousmane Dembele for the opener to secure a 2-0 victory at Sevilla, lifting Barcelona into second place in the Spanish league.

• Injury-hit Juventus was held at Hellas Verona to 1-1 as its hopes of a recordextending 10th successive Serie A title took a blow.

• Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski bagged two goals as Bayern Munich routed Cologne 5-1 to end its two-game winless streak and consolidate its league lead.

Local colleges

The UC San Diego baseball team (1-1) won its first Division I game in history with a 9-3 victory over SDSU (3-2) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

• Camden Vasquez delivered a walkoff single as USD baseball (3-2) rallied for its third consecutive win, taking down visiting Cal State Fullerton (2-3) by a score of 6-5.

• SDSU (6-3) dropped the rubber game of its weekend softball series with No. 5/6 Washington (11-2), 5-0.

• The UCSD women’s basketball team (5-8 Big West) narrowly fell to visiting UC Irvine (12-7), 64-58.

Also

The San Diego Gulls lost their third straight game, and unfortunately, all three losses were to the team atop their division. The host Henderson Silver Knights won 4-2 to improve to 8-1 on the season. San Diego is 7-4. Andrew Agozzino and Bryce Kindopp scored to give the Gulls a 2-1 lead, but that’s all the offense San Diego could muster, and Henderson went on to the win.

• Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar won the UAE Tour, finishing the weeklong race 35 seconds ahead of British rider Adam Yates.

• Lavannes Squires, the first Black men’s basketball player at Kansas and a member of the Jayhawks’ 1952 national title team, died last week in Pasadena. He was 90.