Injury grounds Asmussen Derby contender

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has one less contender for his first Kentucky Derby victory.

Big Lake, third in the Grade

2 $1 million Rebel at Oaklawn, is out of action, emerging from the March 13 race with a condylar fracture in one of his legs.

The Rebel marked Big Lake’s first stakes appearance, shipping from Fair Grounds after maiden and first-level allowance victories in New Orleans. Earning

10 points for the Kentucky Derby, he was installed at 50-1 in the latest Future Wager but was scratched.

The Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon is second with

66 Derby points, earning 50 for his second-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. Hot Rod Charlie, trained by two-time Derby winner Doug O’Neill, won the race under Joel Rosario, who also rides Rebel winner Concert Tour for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.

Asmussen’s 21 Derby starters are the sixth highest in the race’s 146-year history but his best finishes are two seconds and two thirds. His three Triple Crown victories have come with Oaklawn stakes winners Curlin and the filly Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness and Creator in the Belmont Stakes.

Advance wagering on the Kentucky Derby continues Friday-Sunday on a weekend with major prep races at Gulfstream Park (Florida Derby), Turfway Park (Jeff Ruby Steaks) and in Dubai (UAE Derby). All three races have 100-40-20-10 point breakdowns.

With undefeated Life Is Good injured and off the Derby trail with an injury, Concert Tour becomes Baffert’s leading contender for a record seventh race victory. Sired by 2007 Derby winner Street Sense, Concert Tour is pointing to the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby April 10, the last 100-point prep. Baffert also has stakes winners Medina Spirit and Spielberg and Rebel runner-up Hozier in Kentucky Derby contention.

Spielberg, named for the two-time Oscar-winning director and a California Grade 2 winner in December, is to represent Baffert’s first starter in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on Saturday. At Oaklawn, the colt finished second in the Grade 3 Southwest Feb. 27 despite missing the break.

“I have all these horses and I’m going to separate them out,” Baffert told Louisville-based website Horse Racing Nation. Spielberg “broke horribly, came on and ran second” at Oaklawn (but) “wasn’t going to beat the winner. We’ll take him down there (to Florida), see how he ships down there and see how he stacks up.”

Greatest Honour, a multiple graded winner at Gulfstream, is the probable Florida Derby favorite. Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, the 2013 Derby winner with Orb, trains the colt for Donald and Donna Adam of Courtlandt Farms in Ocala, Fla. Greatest Honour, by supersire Tapit, ranks third in the Derby standings with 60 points.

Undefeated champion Essential Quality, last-out winner of the Southwest in his 3-year-old debut, is in line for the Grade 2 Blue Grass April 3 at Keeneland. Also by Tapit, Essential Quality won two Grade 1 races, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Breeders’ Futurity, over the Lexington, Ky., track last year. Brad Cox trains Essential Quality for mighty Godolphin Stable, which seeks its first Derby victory a year after missing a chance with the injured Maxfield.

Another Godolphin horse, Mystic Guide, is the 5-2 overseas betting favorite for Saturday’s $12 million Dubai World Cup. In his 4-year-old debut, the Ghostzapper colt ran away with Oaklawn’s Grade 3 Razorback Handicap Feb. 27. When the previously undefeated Maxfield finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Godolphin juggled its lineup for Dubai.

“When Mystic Guide ran like he did at Oaklawn, it seemed like the right thing to do,” trainer Mike Stidham told HRN. “At one point there were thoughts that Mayfield might be the one that was coming. That changed when he went to the Santa Anita Handicap. That opened the door for Mystic Guide.”

Ridden by four different jockeys but never out of the money in his seven starts, winning the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, Mystic Guide keeps Luis Saez aboard. Stidham said he has gotten tips from Asmussen and his assistant, Scott Blasi, about the 8,000-mile flight to Dubai. Asmussen won the 2008 World Cup with Curlin, a twotime Horse of the Year who won the 2007 Arkansas Derby and Rebel at Oaklawn.

• Essential Quality is the 3-1 favorite in Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager. Concert Tour ranks second at 9-2 and Greatest Honour third at

4-1. With his victory in Louisiana, Hot Rod Charlie moved up to 6-1. From there, the odds go up to 20-1 on horses including Medina Spiirt and “all other

3-year-olds.”

Oaklawn stakes winner Caddo River is 30-1 after placing fifth as the Rebel favorite. With only 10 points, the Cox trainee needs to win or place in his next start (possibly the Arkansas Derby) to make the Kentucky Derby field.

Among other Oaklawn-raced horses, Hozier is 30-1 and Spielberg 50-1. The KDFW offers win and exacta wagering on the May

1 classic at Churchill Downs.