Tim Wilkin ranks the top 3-year-olds.
With ticket to Run for Roses punched, Baffert looking for solid Santa Anita effort
In the 21 Kentucky Derby prep races that have been run across the country (and in Dubai) since the first of the year, only one horse has been able to win twice. What does that tell you? It tells you what we’ve been saying for more than a few weeks.
The 145th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 4 could be won by just about any horse that gets into the starting gate at Churchill Downs.
War of Will, who was once on top of everyone’s Derby list, is the only horse with a pair of wins after he won the Lecomte (Jan. 19) and Risen Star (Feb. 16), both races at Fair Grounds in Louisiana. And, seeing as thoroughbred racing is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of sport, War of Will’s bulb began to dim after he finished up the track in the Louisiana Derby a couple of weeks ago.
This weekend could tell us a lot about which horses will be the ones to beat on the first Saturday in May. Three of the biggest prep races of the season will be run, led by the $1 million, Grade I Santa Anita Derby in California.
That race will be highlighted by the Bob Baffert-trained Game Winner, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champ. He made his first start since then when he was nipped by Omaha Beach in one of the split divisions of the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 16. The short field of five also includes Improbable, Game Winner’s stablemate, and Instagrand, who is coming off a third-place finish in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct last month.
“I was really happy with that race,” Baffert said this week about Game Winner’s Rebel. “He made a very gallant run at Omaha Beach. It was a very great horse race of two really good horses. (Game Winner) has come back, looks good and is training well. I am really looking forward to the weekend.”
Game Winner is in the Kentucky Derby field as he sits in 10th place in the points race with 45. The top 20 get a spot in the starting gate.
“This is our version of March Madness,” Baffert said. “We have a tough horse. He tried hard in the last one and that is all you can ask for.”
Baffert expects that Game Winner, a son of Candy Ride, will be tough again on Saturday, but it’s not the race he wants his horse to be totally cranked up for. We know which one that is.
Game Winner still keeps the top spot on this list because I think he is the horse that has the best chance to win the Kentucky Derby. He is always coming and I expect that to be the case as we get deeper into Triple Crown season.
“We really don’t want a blowout race the race before (the Kentucky Derby),” Baffert said. “The next one, definitely, we really want him to take the big step.”
Game Winner is owned by Gary and Mary West, who also have Florida Derby winner Maximum Security, the winner of the Florida Derby last weekend.
“He is probably the horse to beat right now,” Baffert said of Maximum Security.
In the Santa Anita Derby, Baffert will also be saddling Roadster, who, last year was the trainer’s No. 1 seed heading toward the prep season. But he had a throat issue and just recently came back to the races. He did it impressively, too, beating four rivals with the winning margin being 2 1/2 lengths.
Roadster will have to run big if he wants to advance to the next round; he currently has no Derby points. Improbable also likely needs a big effort when he runs in the Arkansas Derby next weekend. Improbable is in 19th place in the Derby points standings with 24.
“Improbable has to run lights out in the Arkansas Derby,” Baffert said. “He needs to run first or second to get in the (Kentucky) Derby. And (Roadster) needs to run first or second also.”