Positions drawn for horse race

HOT SPRINGS — For most entrants, the post-position draw for the Arkansas Derby is no more than a ceremonial event to highlight the eve of Oaklawn Park’s Racing Festival of the South.

It is part of the routine of every race run at racetracks worldwide, but the Arkansas Derby’s stature as a Grade I $1 million racing jewel gives it more weight.

More than 100 fans and horsemen gathered to watch in the track’s ground-level main hall, including trainer Rodolphe Brisset, whose trainee Quip — winner of the Grade II Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs on March 10 — drew the No. 8 post in the nine-horse field. With jockey Florent Geroux listed as his rider, Quip’s past performances drew the third-highest program odds of 9-2.

Brisset shrugged at the importance of Quip’s spot in the starting gate.

“I don’t think you want to go to the first gate,” he said. “The one can be a little tricky, but the eight, there’s nothing wrong with that. I guess from there we’ll get a good look at everybody to see what they’re going to do and to see what we need to do.”

From the rail out, Quip will race 30-1 Beautiful Shot, with jockey Richard

Eramia and trained by Keith Desormeaux; 20-1 Machismo, with jockey Scott Spieth and trained by Anthony Quartarolo; 10-1 Tenfold with jockey Victor Espinoza and trained by Steve Asmussen; 15-1 Dream Baby Dream with jockey Luis Contreras and trained by Asmussen; 2-1 Solomini with jockey Flavien Pratt and trained by Bob Baffert; 8-5 Magnum Moon with jockey Luis Saez and trained by Todd Pletcher; 30-1 Plainsman with jockey C.J. McMahon and trained by Will Van Meter; and 6-1 Combatant with jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. and trained by Asmussen.

The Racing Festival of South, which is highlighted Saturday by the 11/8-mile Arkansas Derby and its field of elite 3-year-olds, begins today with the $150,000 6-furlong Bachelor Stakes for 3-yearold sprinters. The festival’s seven feature events include five graded stakes races — the Arkansas Derby, the Grade III $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap and the Grade II $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday, and the Grade I Apple Blossom Handicap and Grade III Fantasy Stakes on Friday.

Santana said he is confident in his chance aboard Combatant in the Arkansas Derby,

but sounded even more optimistic as he spoke of Mitole, the even-money favorite and Asmussen trainee he expects to ride in the Bachelor today.

“I really like that horse,” Santana said. “I think he can be very good. He keeps getting better.”

The Arkansas Derby will contribute 170 Kentucky Derby-qualifying points to the first four finishers, with 100 to first, 40 to second, 20 to third and 10 to fourth. Since the current points system was put into place for the 2015 season, horses have qualified for the Kentucky Derby with 32 or more points.

Quip is nearly certain to make the Derby field with the 50 points he earned from his Tampa Bay Derby victory, but Brisset said fitness considerations required another race. He said he also considered the Grade II Blue Grass Stakes, run last Saturday at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., but chose the Arkansas Derby after Baffert decided to run Justify in the Santa Anita Derby in Southern California rather than in the Arkansas Derby.

Justify won the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.

“We were leaning toward the Blue Grass, but then Mr. Baffert rerouted Justify, and that kind of opened the window here,” Brisset said. “Also, this is a Grade I, so it was a team decision to come here.”