Preps done, Derby field shaping up
With Concert Tour out, three Oaklawn-raced horses, all of them stakes winners in Hot Springs, appear probable starters for the 147th Kentucky Derby.
Unbeaten champion Essential Quality ranks first with 140 points from a series of prep races in which points are distributed to the top four finishers. The Tapit colt, trained by Brad Cox, won the Grade 3 Southwest Feb.
27 at Oaklawn in his 3-year-old debut and, as scheduled, returned to Kentucky for a Grade
2 victory in the Blue Grass April 3 at Keeneland. The Godolphin homebred is considered the Kentucky Derby favorite a week before entries are drawn for the May 1 classic at Churchill Downs.
Other Oaklawn-raced contenders are Super Stock, winner of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby April 10, and Caddo River, the Smarty Jones winner Jan. 22. Caddo River, owned and bred by the Shortleaf Stable of Hot Springs lumberman John Ed Anthony, finished a rallying second in the Arkansas Derby after a disappointing fifth-place effort in the Grade
2 Rebel March 13.
Super Stock, one of two Steve Asmussen-trained contenders, is third with 109 points. Caddo River, among three Cox has eligible, ranks 11th with 50 points. Get Her Number, a troubled fourth in the Arkansas Derby for trainer Peter Miller, is 21st in points and needs a defection to make the field.
Rebel winner Concert Tour, previously unbeaten before running third in the Arkansas Derby, will miss the Kentucky Derby and aim for the May 15 Preakness, Churchill Downs announced Saturday.
This leaves Bob Baffert with only one Derby contender: Medina Spirit, eighth with
74 points, has a Grade 3 win and three graded seconds in California this year. The Hall of Fame trainer earlier ruled out unbeaten stakes winner Life Is Good because of an injury.
Baffert won a record-tying sixth Kentucky Derby with Authentic last year, when the race was moved from May 2 to Sept. 3 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Concert Tour totaled 70 points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, scoring 50 in the Grade 3 Rebel March 13 and 10 each in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis. The Street Sense colt, owned by Gary and Mary West, won the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita before shipping east the first time.
Concert Tour overhauled pacesetter Caddo River in the Arkansas Derby but then was headed by the colt for second going nine furlongs. Concert Tour led from gate to wire in the mile-and-sixteenth Rebel.
Besides Essential Quality and Caddo River, Cox is pointing Fair Grounds Grade 2 Risen Star winner Mandaloun (10th with
52 points) to the Derby. Midnight Bourbon, ninth with 100 points from the Louisiana circuit, gives Asmussen another hopeful in the race that he is 0-for-21 with two seconds and two thirds.
Two-time Derby winner Todd Pletcher has four contenders: Grade 1 Florida Derby winner Known Agenda (102), Turfway Park Grade 3 one-two finishers Bourbonic (100)
and Sainthood (40) and Grade 2 Wood Memorial runner-up Dynamic One (40).
Others with multiple Derby hopefuls are trainers Mark Casse with Helium (50) and Soup and Sandwich (40) and Chad Brown with Highly Motivated (50) and Crowded Trade (40).
Two-time Derby winner Doug O’Neill is represented by Hot Rod Charlie, second with
110 points after winning the longest prep race, the Grade 2 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby March
20. The Kentucky Derby is a mile and a quarter. Kentucky Derby qualifying points
Horse (Trainer) Points
1. Essential Quality (B. Cox) 140
2, Hot Rod Charlie (O’Neill) 110
3, Super Stock (Asmussen) 109
4. Like the King (W. Ward) 104
5. Known Agenda (Pletcher) 102
6. Rock Your World (Sadler) 100
7. Bourbonic (Pletcher) 100
8. Medina Spirit (Baffert) 74
9. Midnight Bourbon (Asmussen) 100
10. Mandaloun (B. Cox) 52
11. Caddo River (B. Cox) 50
12. Highly Motivated (C. Brown) 50
13. Helium (Casse) 50
14. Soup and Sandwich (Casse) 40
15. Dynamic One (Pletcher) 40
16. Crowded Trade (C. Brown) 40
17 Sainthood (Pletcher) 40
18. Hidden Stash (V. Oliver) 32
19. Dream Shake (Eurton) 30
20. O Bezos (G. Foley) 25 Top 20 in points qualify for Kentucky Derby May 1 at Churchill Downs.
Nos. 21-30: Get Her Number (P. Miller) 20, King Fury (McPeek) 20, Hockey Dad (O’Neill) 20, Keepmeinmind (Diodoro) 18, Starrinmydreams (Stewart) 4.