Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
DEEPER WATER
CADDO RIVER TAKES NEXT STEP IN REBEL,
Every day at this time of year is a big day if you’ve got a Kentucky Derby contender. It’ll be so in triplicate for trainer Brad Cox on Saturday.
He’ll arise early in New Orleans and head over to Fair Grounds, where Essential Quality, his unbeaten Eclipse Award winner, will have his first work back following his victory two weeks earlier in the Southwest, and where Mandaloun, winner of the Risen Star, will have his final work in advance of the Louisiana Derby seven days later.
Then Cox will hop in his car and drive seven hours north to Oaklawn Park, where Caddo River will try to enhance his credentials for the May 1 Kentucky Derby when he faces the unbeaten Concert Tour and the returning Keepmeinmind in a compelling edition of the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel.
“I might miss my runner in the first race, but I’ll be there for the rest,” he said.
The Rebel goes as race 11 on a 12-race card scheduled to begin at noon local time. Eight are entered to chase the lucrative pot, and 85 Derby points, including 50 to the winner.
The Rebel headlines a terrific card, with five stakes, two graded, including the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri, race 5, for older females. It serves as the final local prep for next month’s prestigious Apple Blossom. Cox is well represented there, too, with Kentucky Oaks winner Shed ares the devil and Get rid of what ailesu among five seeking the right to take on Cox’s two-time champ, Monomoy Girl, in the Apple Blossom.
The best of the non-graded stakes by far is race 10, the Hot Springs, where champion sprinter Whitmore goes for an amazing fifth straight victory in the six-furlong race while facing C Z Rocket as both make their first starts since finishing one-two in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
That all serves as a warm-up for the Rebel, a 1 1/16-mile race that is as the final major local prep for next month’s Arkansas Derby.
Caddo River and Concert Tour will vie for favoritism. Caddo River has the home-court advantage, and already has gone two turns, having crushed rivals in the one-mile Smarty Jones last time out while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 92. He has speed and the rail.
“He’s quick enough out of the gate,” Cox said. “He’s got a lot of leg to him. He’s certainly looks like a two-turn horse.”
Caddo River had been based at Oaklawn, and worked once there after the Smarty Jones, but he was sent to Fair Grounds last month just prior to a deep freeze descending on Hot Springs. He recorded his last four drills at Fair Grounds.
“We thought it was a good idea to get him out of town,” Cox said.
Concert Tour invades with the exact résumé of last year’s Rebel winner, Nadal, who was a debut winner sprinting against maidens in January, won the seven-furlong San Vicente three weeks later – both at Santa Anita – then stretched out for the first time in the Rebel. Like Nadal, Concert Tour is trained by Bob Baffert, who has won the Rebel a record seven times, all since 2010.
“He’s on the same pattern, but until they do it you don’t know for sure,” said Baffert, who quickly added, “I don’t see any question marks. I think he’s got a lot of quality.”
Concert Tour – who got a Beyer of 94 in the San Vicente – has speed, and is drawn outside of Caddo River, in post 7, so he figures to stalk.
Baffert doubles up with Hozier, who defeated maidens going long in his second start last time out at Santa Anita.
Steve Asmussen also doubles up, with Big Lake – seeking his third straight win while making his stakes debut – and Super Stock, co-owned by his father, Keith, making his first start since October.
Big Lake won his last two starts, against maidens and allowance foes, both at Fair Grounds, at 1 1/16 miles.
“I think he deserves this chance, and I like the mile and a sixteenth for him as opposed to a mile and three-sixteenths in the Louisiana Derby,” Asmussen said.
Super Stock, who had six starts at 2, ran perhaps his best race when third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity to Essential Quality and Keepmeinmind. His lone win came in the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity, when ridden by Asmussen’s son, Keith James Asmussen.
“That was the coolest thing ever, winning a stake with my son for my father,” Asmussen said.
Like Super Stock, both Keepmeinmind and Get Her Number are making their first starts of the year.
Keepmeinmind was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as a maiden before a season-ending victory in the Kentucky Jockey Club. He was scheduled to run in the Southwest last month, but missed the race owing to compromised training when the poor weather hit.
Get Her Number won his only try on dirt last year, the Grade 1 American Pharoah at Santa Anita. He won his debut last year, so he’s capable of firing fresh.
Twilight Blue completes the field.