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Weekend Lineup: Final Preps Offer Last Chances To Earn Derby Points

Final chances for horses to earn qualifying points into the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve will be on the line on Saturday (April 10) headlined by Oaklawn Park's Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and Keeneland's Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes.

Grade 2 Rebel Stakes winner Concert Tour, the No. 2-ranked horse on the latest top NTRA 3-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll, is the morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby. The race awards Kentucky Derby points to the top four finishers on a 100-40-20-10 basis. At Keeneland, Proxy is favored in the 1 1/16-mile Stonestreet Lexington Stakes. The Lexington awards Kentucky Derby points to the top four finishers on a 20-8-4-2 basis. The Kentucky Derby field is limited to 20 starters.

The Arkansas Derby will be televised by NBC Sports as part of their “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series during a one-hour program airing on NBCSN and beginning at 7 p.m. ET. The telecast will also include highlights of the much anticipated rematch of the nation's top sprinters – CZ Rocket and Whitmore – in Oaklawn's Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

TVG will be broadcasting every race, every day with expanded coverage of Keeneland's Spring Meet, which runs through April 23. In addition to racing from Keeneland, Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park, TVG will feature racing from Oaklawn Park, Aqueduct and more. Fans can tune in on TVG, TVG2 and the Watch TVG app, which is available on Amazon Fire, Roku and connected Apple TV devices.

“America's Day at the Races” will also be live on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. ET on FS1 and from 3-8 p.m. ET on FS2; and on Sunday from 1-4 p.m. ET on FS2 and from 4-6:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

Friday, April 9

5:30 p.m. ― $300,000 Grade 1 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland on TVG

Peter Brant's 6-year-old Raging Bull (FR), who finished third by a neck in last year's Maker's Mark Mile, makes his 2021 debut in this year's renewal on the Keenland turf, leading the nine-horse field as the 7-2 morning-line favorite. Trained by Chad Brown, Raging Bull, ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., is a two-time Grade 1 winner. Another Brown starter, the 6-year-old Sacred Life (FR), fourth in last September's Grade 1 Old Forrester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, also will be making his 2021 debut. A formidable invader from California is the Dan Blacker-trained 4-year-old Hit the Road, who's on a four-race win streak capped by a strong-closing neck victory in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile on March 6 at Santa Anita. Maker's Mark is celebrating its 25th year as title sponsor of the race.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/KEE040921USA-EQB.html#RACE9

Saturday, April 10

4:24 p.m. ― $150,000 Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland on TVG

Steve Landers Racing's 5-year-old Night Ops is slated to face four rivals in the 90th running of the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland. Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Javier Castellano, Night Ops will seek to improve off his third-place finish in a tough Essex Handicap on March 13 at Oaklawn. Tom Durant's 7-year-old gelding Silver Dust was third in last September's Grade 3 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs for trainer Bret Calhoun.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/KEE041021USA-EQB.html#RACE7

5:30 p.m.― $200,000 Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on TVG

Twenty Kentucky Derby qualifying points go to the winner of the Grade 3, $200,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes, and a win by Godolphin's Proxy or Reddam Racing's Hockey Dad would put that horse into the starting gate at Churchill Downs. Godolphin's Proxy, trained by Mike Stidham, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the 10-horse field. The bay son of Tapit comes to Keeneland off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby. California-bred Hockey Dad is a son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, and races for his sire's same connections of Paul Reddam, trainer Doug O'Neill and jockey Mario Gutierrez. Hockey Dad won three races at Santa Anita before finishing third in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park on March 27. Another intriguing starter is the Bob Baffert-trained Bezos. Highly touted and heavily wagered in the Derby futures, Bezos faltered at 3-5 in his debut at Santa Anita on Feb. 7, finishing seventh of nine. However, the son of Empire Maker rebounded in a one-mile maiden special weight at Santa Anita on March 26 with a sparkling 4 ½-length win.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/KEE041021USA9-EQB.html

5:49 p.m.― $400,000 Oaklawn Mile at Oaklawn Park on TVG

Nine are slated to go in the Oaklawn Mile led by Allied Racing Stable's and Spendthrift Farm's By My Standards, a winner of three Grade 2 stakes races in 2020, and with career earnings of more than $1.8 million. Trained by Bret Calhoun and ridden by Gabriel Saez, the 5-year-old By My Standards won last year's Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap. Florida-bred Rushie, winner of last September's Grade 2 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs for trainer Michael McCarthy, and the Brad Cox-trained 4-year-old Wells Bayou, figure to be in the wagering picture. Wells Bayou, who won last year's Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, finished third in the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes at the Fair Grounds in his first start of 2021.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP041021USA-EQB.html#RACE9

6:03 p.m. ― $300,000 Grade 1 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on TVG

Trainer Chad Brown is shooting for his fourth consecutive Grade 1 Coolmore Jenny Wiley for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The four-time Eclipse Award winner sends out Peter Brant, Mrs. M.V. Magnier and Mrs. Paul Shanahan's Etoile (FR), and Swift Thoroughbreds, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables' Tamahere (FR). Etoile will be making her first start since winning the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine in October. Tamahere, winner of the Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park in her U.S. debut in October, will be making her first start since finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar. Etoile and Tamahere will take on the challenge of race favorite Micheline, owned by Godolphin and trained by Mike Stidham, who opened the season with a win in the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs, and finished second in last October's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/KEE041021USA-EQB.html#RACE10

7:05 p.m. ―$500,000 Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park on TVG

Saturday's six-furlong Count Fleet Sprint pits the nation's top sprinters – Whitmore and C Z Rocket – in their third consecutive confrontation. Robert LaPenta, Southern Springs Stables and Head of Plains Partners' 8-year-old gelding Whitmore defeated C Z Rocket, owned by Madaket Stables, Gary Barber and Tom Kagele, and trained by Peter Miller, in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland last November. Whitmore, who is co-owned and trained by Ron Moquett, was subsequently voted the Eclipse Award male sprinter trophy. The 7-year-old gelding C Z Rocket turned the tables on Whitmore in the six-furlong Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn on March 13, coming from last to overtake his rival by a neck. Seven will go to the post in the Count Fleet. The 9-5 Whitmore will be ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., and Florent Geroux will ride the 2-1 C Z Rocket.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP041021USA-EQB.html#RACE11

7:41 p.m. ―$1 million Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on NBCSN and TVG

Gary and Mary West's undefeated Concert Tour is the even-money favorite in the six-horse, Grade 1, 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby, the final Kentucky Derby qualifying points race. Trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Joel Rosario, Concert Tour went wire to wire in Oaklawn's 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on March 13 with an impressive 4¼-length victory. Baffert, who won a division of last year's race with Nadal, and also saddled American Phoroah in 2015 and Bodemeister in 2012 to Arkansas Derby triumphs, also trains the 3-1 second choice, Hozier, who was the Rebel Stakes runner-up. Smarty Jones Stakes winner Caddo River, owned by John Ed Anthony's Shortleaf Stable and trained by Brad Cox, finished fifth as the 6-5 favorite in the Rebel after battling Concert Tour for the lead at the top of the stretch. Gary Barber's Get Her Number, winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita last fall, will try to improve upon his seventh-place finish in the Rebel, which was his seasonal debut for trainer Peter Miller.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP041021USA-EQB.html#RACE12

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O’Neill: Everything Set For Hot Rod Charlie, Except Derby Jockey

Doug O'Neill has a Kentucky Derby itinerary all mapped out for Hot Rod Charlie, save for one detail: no jockey.

That will work itself after Joel Rosario, who rode Hot Rod Charlie to an impressive two-length victory in the Louisiana Derby on March 20, pilots San Vicente and Rebel winner Concert Tour for Bob Baffert in Saturday's Arkansas Derby.

“If all goes well, our horse will breeze at Santa Anita every Saturday until the final one (on May 1),” said O'Neill, who steadfastly maintains an upbeat countenance. “He's booked to fly to Kentucky the Sunday before (April 25).

“We have no jockey right now but Rosario is supposed to let us know after the Arkansas Derby.”

O'Neill will be seeking to capture the Run for the Roses for the third time, having won it in 2012 with I'll Have Another and 2016 with Nyquist, both of whom were based at Santa Anita. Baffert has won the world's most famous race six times and the Triple Crown twice, in 2015 with American Pharoah and in 2018 with Justify.

Both call Santa Anita home.

“I think it's the weather,” O'Neill said when asked why horses based at The Great Race Place have had so much success at Churchill Downs. “Being able to train daily is huge, and you have to have a great team, too.

“But the weather here gives us a huge edge.”

Team O'Neill got a welcome taste of live action at Santa Anita last weekend when a limited number of fans were permitted to attend the races for the first time in more than a year, with the pandemic hopefully on the wane.

“It was great,” he said, “just the energy in the air. There's nothing better than racing and winning when there's good energy coming from the fans.

“It's great to have people back, so let's keep it going.”

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This Side Up: A Tour With Many Dates

Well, I guess in the week we lost Mrs. Chandler–that elegant bridge at the center of five generations (and counting) of Kentucky horse lore–nobody will need reminding to take the long view. Certainly not Shug McGaughey, who will perhaps be reminding the disappointed connections of Greatest Honour (Tapit) how things didn't turn out too badly for Coronado's Quest (Forty Niner) after he was likewise derailed from the Classic trail. Maybe Greatest Honour can now become Shug's fifth winner of the GI Travers S., a race with an even longer history than the one he was targeting on the first Saturday in May.

Even so, the heart goes out to Mr. Adam and his team at Courtlandt Farm. We learn perspective with the passing of years, but horses teach us forbearance every single day. (That's the idea, anyway: some of us remain stubbornly slow to absorb our lessons…) But there's no getting away from it. Greatest Honour's absence further weakens a GI Kentucky Derby already deprived of the charismatic Life Is Good (Into Mischief); and reiterates how ruthlessly the race secures its mystique. Because from the moment every single Thoroughbred colt slithers into the straw, his breeders will already know the date–set in stone, albeit three Mays hence–when he will need to be fit and firing if he is to fulfil their ultimate dream.

True, last year was an unprecedented exception, as will be bitterly remembered by those who presented Nadal (Blame) and Charlatan (Speightstown) in imperious condition on the first Saturday in May. Oaklawn stepped up to the plate that day, after Churchill had unilaterally subverted the whole calendar (making a gamble, of course, that didn't pay off anyway). Water under the bridge, by now, and anyway imperfection is a constant of our species–and especially pardonable, as such, in such bewildering times. Oaklawn themselves, after all, arguably diluted their service to the breed by dividing a race that might just as well have been extended, exceptionally, into a 10th furlong.

This time round we must settle for a field that depends pretty exorbitantly on one colt. After the defections already suffered, certainly, we don't want that blanket of roses to lose any more petals. Concert Tour (Street Sense) arrives with an immaculate record to date, and bids to emulate Sunny's Halo (Halo), Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality) and American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) by adding the Arkansas and Kentucky Derbys to the GII Rebel S.

Bob Baffert permitted himself comparisons with American Pharoah himself in the ease and swagger of Concert Tour's Rebel performance and, given how most of these were strewn hopelessly in his wake that day, the most intriguing question this time is whether their trainer will now extend the similarities by seeking some evidence of versatility. If he Concert Tour can rate as readily as Pharoah, that will obviously open up options in the 20-runner stampede at Churchill. Such an experiment, moreover, may well result in a more meaningful test here, as Caddo River (Hard Spun) clearly did not respond well when denied a chance to throw down the gauntlet in the Rebel. It was almost like he was stamping his feet and hollering that everybody knows you don't give an uncontested lead to horses from that barn.

As we've noted in the past, it was in the 1993 Arkansas Derby that Ben Glass saddled Rockamundo (Key To The Mint) for a 108-1 success that introduced patrons Gary and Mary West to the next level in their adventure on Turf. A lot of their success since traces to the happy fact that they were able to persuade Glass to stay on as racing manager after he quit training a couple of years later, and the homebred Concert Tour has the wholesome two-turn pedigree central to this program.

The Wests also bred Life Is Good, selling him for $525,000 as a yearling, but were already amply versed in the kind of vicissitudes that can befall a Derby horse. Two years ago they discovered that there are zero guarantees even if you not only show up on the day to run the race of your life, but also beat 19 rivals to that winning post. Maybe Concert Tour is the colt to redress their experience with Maximum Security (New Year's Day); maybe not. Who can say? Because the way destiny operates, in selecting a single member of the crop for that place in the Derby annals, is entirely unreadable.

None of us, then, can determine our fulfilment with Thoroughbreds solely on a two-minute roll of the dice in a race for which the odds of being both eligible and fit are so enormous. You wouldn't, for instance, want Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) to stand or fall on his performance under the Twin Spires: he was stone last that day, but while the winner Nyquist (Uncle Mo) has meanwhile sired an Eclipse Award winner, Whitmore was himself honored at the same ceremony at the age of eight, having discovered his true metier in sprinting.

And, to be fair, he's the real star turn on this card. The old gelding makes his fifth appearance in the GIII Count Fleet H., in which race only another champion, Mitole (Eskendereya), has ever beaten him.

Currently tied with 1965 Arkansas Derby winner Swift Ruler (Sir Ruler) on seven stakes wins at Oaklawn, he stands on the brink of the outright record. Whatever happens, he is already a Hot Springs legend and a huge credit to Ron Moquett.

Let's not forget that in terms of their optimal maturity, all these sophomores we obsess about are barely adolescent. Unfortunately, we tend to permit Thoroughbreds their full racetrack potential only by removing their competence to recycle at stud the hardiness they can then explore. That's one of the reasons I hope that Whitmore's contemporary Tom's d'Etat excels at WinStar. Because sometimes the only way horses can teach us the long view is if we let them play a long game.

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Baffert Looking for ‘Concert’ Encore in Arkansas Derby

After losing presumptive GI Kentucky Derby favorite Life Is Good (Into Mischief) to injury for several months, Bob Baffert may still have the Derby chalk in his barn if his undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Concert Tour (Street Sense) can follow up his dominant GII Rebel S. score with a similar performance against just five rivals in Saturday's $1-million GI Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn.

Unveiled as an even-money favorite going six furlongs Jan. 15 at Santa Anita, the Gary and Mary West homebred scored a good-looking wire-to-wire victory and repeated with a half-length triumph in the GII San Vicente S. there Feb. 6. Stretched out to two turns for the first time in the Rebel here Mar. 13, the bay set a sharp pace and drew clear strongly in the lane for a convincing 4 1/4-length success. Pegged as the even-money favorite on the morning line with regular rider Joel Rosario, he drilled six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 (1/5) at his Arcadia home base Apr. 3.

The Rebel was billed as a clash between Concert Tour and fellow promising 'Rising Star' Caddo River (Hard Spun), but that battle never materialized, as frontrunning Caddo River was taken off the lead and got rank before finishing a distant fifth. Trainer Brad Cox has promised more aggressive tactics in the Arkansas Derby for the Shortleaf Stable homebred, who previously crushed his Smarty Jones S. rivals by 10 1/4 lengths to follow up a 9 1/2-length third-out graduation. With just 10 Derby qualifying points, he needs a top two finish to punch his ticket to Louisville.

“We're going to try and be a little bit more involved early if we can,” he told the Oaklawn notes team. “That's really the tactics we're going to take into the race. We'll see if that works any different. He's probably more of a free-running horse. I think we found that out last time. Florent took a hold of him up the backside and that didn't really seem what he wanted to do.”

The second, fourth and seventh finishers from the Rebel also re-oppose. Hozier (Pioneerof the Nile) completed a Baffert exacta that day at 18-1 and another move forward is possible in just his fourth career start.

“I just feel fortunate that I have these two after losing Life Is Good,” Baffert said. “It's pretty tough, you know, but that's why everything works itself out for the Derby. The horse will get you there.”

Late-running Super Stock (Dialed In) rallied to be fourth in the Rebel and was third to champion Essential Quality (Tapit) three back in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. Get Her Number (Dialed In) was seventh with a troubled trip making his sophomore debut in the Rebel after winning the GI American Pharoah S. to close out his 2-year-old season.

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