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TVG’s Weekend Programming Features Live Coverage Of Derby Preps

TVG's coverage of the road to the Kentucky Derby will continue this weekend with live, on-site coverage of key Kentucky Derby prep races from Oaklawn Park and Gulfstream Park – the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) featuring the return of Eclipse Award winner Essential Quality and the $300,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2).

TVG's Caton Bredar will be reporting live from Oaklawn Park on Saturday with interviews, insights and analysis of the eleven-race card which features three stakes races including the $750,000 Southwest Stakes which will offer 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers and serves as a steppingstone to the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) on April 10. The Southwest Stakes (G3) will feature the sophomore debut of Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner and Eclipse champion Essential Quality for trainer Brad Cox. The Godolphin homebred son of Tapit is undefeated from three starts and will have Luis Saez in the irons as he faces six rivals including multiple Grade 1 winner Jackie's Warrior.

Sunday at Oaklawn Park will mark the much-anticipated return of dual Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl for trainer Brad Cox. The six-year-old mare, freshened since a win in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), will face five rivals in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3). Florent Geroux will be aboard the daughter of Tapizar who was purchased for $9.5 million at Fasig-Tipton in November by Spendthrift Farm.

The road to the Kentucky Derby will continue at Gulfstream Park on Saturday and the award-winning network will have Gabby Gaudet, Joaquin Jaime and Caleb Keller on-site with expanded coverage of the fourteen-race card which will feature nine stakes races. The Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) will offer 50-20-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers and has drawn a field of ten including the 9-5 morning line favorite, Greatest Honour for Shug McGaughey, III. The bay son of Tapit was last seen winning the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) in January and will have Jose Ortiz aboard.

Saturday at Gulfstream Park will also feature the sophomore debut of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner and Eclipse champion Vequist in the $200,000 Davona Dale (G2), a prep race for the Kentucky Oaks (G1). The two-time Grade 1 winning filly will square off against eleven-rivals with Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the irons.

TVG will also be live trackside at Santa Anita with Todd Schrupp, Christina Blacker and Britney Eurton anchoring the coverage from California with a nine-race card. The featured event is the $100,000 Pasadena Stakes for three-year-olds going one-mile on the turf which has drawn a field of six including Rock Your World for trainer John Sadler and jockey Umberto Rispoli.

There are also Kentucky Derby points on the line at Turfway Park on Friday night in the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes. The race will offer 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers and features a field of thirteen including the Canadian-bred Grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great, installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite for Mark Casse.

In addition to racing from Oaklawn, Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, TVG will be featuring racing from Tampa Bay Downs, Fair Grounds, 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.

The post TVG’s Weekend Programming Features Live Coverage Of Derby Preps appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Champions Essential Quality, Monomoy Girl Arrive At Oaklawn Park

It was championship Thursday at Oaklawn as Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox sent his two Eclipse Award winners, Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality, to the track to train in preparation for weekend stakes engagements.

Cox said Monomoy Girl and unbeaten Essential Quality arrived at Oaklawn around 8 p.m. (Central) Wednesday following a van ride of approximately eight hours from Fair Grounds, where both horses have been based this winter.

Both horses galloped over a fast track Thursday morning under exercise rider Fernando Espinoza. Essential Quality will make his 3-year-old debut in Saturday's $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3). Monomoy Girl is ticketed for Sunday's $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares.

Essential Quality (3 for 3) will be making his first start since clinching an Eclipse Award as the country's champion 2-year-old male in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland. The gray son of super sire Tapit is the 3-2 program favorite for the Southwest, Oaklawn's second of four Kentucky Derby points races. Essential Quality will break from the rail in the 1 1/16-mile race.

“Just see how it shakes out,” Cox said moments after watching Monomoy Girl gallop. “I'm sure there's going to be some speed in there. We'll see.”

The Southwest and Bayakoa were originally scheduled to be run Feb. 15 before being postponed twice because of severe winter weather. Cox said the delay didn't affect Essential Quality's preparation for the Southwest because he was able to breeze the colt 5 furlongs twice (Feb. 14 and Feb. 20) at Fair Grounds.

“Monomoy Girl, kind of the same thing, really, as far as preparation,” Cox said. “Just two extra works.”

Monomoy Girl will be making her first start since winning the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland. A winner of 13 of 15 career starts, Monomoy Girl was an Eclipse Award winner in 2018 (3-year-old filly) and 2020 (older dirt female). She drew the extreme outside, post 6, for the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa, a major local prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17.

“Monomoy Girl draws outside all the time, it seems,” Cox said. “Fourteen of fourteen in the (Kentucky) Oaks, 11 of 11 in the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs.”

Cox said the Apple Blossom is the major spring objective for Monomoy Girl, who has never raced at Oaklawn.

Essential Quality schooled in the paddock Thursday afternoon. Abrego said Monomoy Girl is scheduled to school in the paddock Friday.

Cox won his first Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding trainer in 2020. He was Oaklawn's third-leading trainer last year.

First post Saturday is 12:15 p.m. and the Southwest is scheduled as Race 10 at 4:58 p.m. First post Sunday is 1 p.m. and the Bayakoa is scheduled as Race 9 at 5:11 p.m.

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Baffert Giving Spielberg ‘Another Chance’ On Derby Trail In Southwest

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has captured one of Oaklawn's four Kentucky Derby points races with a horse named after an Olympic gold medalist, another with a horse named after a professional tennis icon and a third with a horse named after a celebrated soccer manager.

Now, it's that fourth race receiving the “star” treatment. The Southern California-based Baffert, who has dominated Oaklawn's Kentucky Derby prep series the last decade, will send out Spielberg in Saturday's $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3), a 1 1/16-mile event the trainer's already won four times.

Spielberg is named for Steven Spielberg, a two-time Academy Award winner for best director. Purchased for $1 million at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Spielberg – the horse – will be making his first start since a disappointing fourth-place finish in his 3-year-old debut, the $100,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 30 at Santa Anita.

Spielberg was not originally nominated to the Southwest, which was scheduled to be run Feb. 15 before severe winter weather postponed the race twice. After losing eight live racing dates, Oaklawn announced Feb. 17 that nominations to all postponed stakes would be reopened and close Feb. 19. Spielberg, a son of Union Rags, was among a handful of horses nominated during the two-day window and one of seven entered Tuesday morning. He was to be flown Wednesday to Arkansas.

“I really don't plan too far out,” Baffert said Tuesday afternoon. “His last race, he just never really got into it. Struggled all the way around there. But he came back and worked well and so I thought, 'You know what? I know it's going to be a short field and the races are sort of on top of each other.' I thought I would give him another chance. It's an easy ship, so we're just going to send him up there and see if he fits with those.”

Spielberg had a productive 2-year-old campaign, finishing second and third, as a maiden, in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) at Del Mar and $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita, respectively, and winning the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) at 1 1/16 miles Dec. 19 at Los Alamitos.

Spielberg was beaten 11 ¼ lengths in the two-turn Robert B. Lewis. In his only other poor performance, Spielberg finished fourth, beaten 9 ½ lengths, in the $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes (G3) Nov. 15 at Del Mar. The colt was coming off a Nov. 1 maiden victory at Del Mar.

“He just never got engaged in the race,” Baffert said of the Robert B. Lewis. “One of those races where he just didn't show up. He came out of it fine. We thought he was doing well going in. He's done that before. He did that at Del Mar. He ran in a stake and just didn't show up.”

Baffert won the Southwest in 2010 with Conveyance – the trainer's first Oaklawn starter in roughly nine years – in 2012 with Castaway and Secret Circle (split race) and in 2013 with Super Ninety Nine. The late Bob Holthus, Oaklawn's all-time winningest trainer, captured the Southwest a record five times.

Baffert also won the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) in 2012 with Bodemeister, who was named after Olympic gold medal winning skier Bode Miller. Baffert won Oaklawn's first Kentucky Derby points race, the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, in 2018 with Mourinho, who was named after three-time Premier League champion soccer coach Jose Mourinho.

Baffert won the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) last year with Nadal, named after Rafael Nadal, who has a record-equaling 20 career Grand Slam men's singles tennis titles. Nadal returned to win the second division of the Arkansas Derby last May.

The Southwest will offer 17 points to the top four finishers (10-4-2-1, respectively) toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Oaklawn's Kentucky Derby points series continues with the $1 million Rebel (G2) March 13 and the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 10.

The Southwest anchors Saturday's 11-race program that begins at 12:15 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the Southwest, which goes as race 10, is 4:58 p.m. The projected field from the rail out: Essential Quality, Luis Saez to ride, 119 pounds; Saffa's Day, Ricardo Santana Jr., 117; Last Samurai, Jon Court, 117; Jackie's Warrior, Joel Rosario, 119; Santa Cruiser, Richard Eramia, 117; Woodhouse, David Cabrera, 117; and Spielberg, Martin Garcia, 119.

Unbeaten Essential Quality was the country's champion 2-year-old male for trainer Brad Cox, while Jackie's Warrior was a multiple Grade 1 winner last year for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Both horses have been based this winter at Fair Grounds and will be making their 2021 debuts in the Southwest.

Baffert said unbeaten Concert Tour (2 for 2) is already “penciled in” for the 1 1/16-mile Rebel, a race the trainer has won a record seven times. Also pointing for the Rebel is runaway Smarty Jones winner Caddo River, another Cox trainee, and locally based Grade 2 winner Keepmeinmind for trainer Robertino Diodoro.

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Jackie’s Warrior, Former King of the Hill, Looks to Reclaim His Perch

In the world's current state of affairs, a lot can change in a few months' time. Racing is no different. One only has to go back to November to remember when Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) was the undisputed leader of his age group. But an odds-on loss on the sport's biggest stage took the bloom off of his rose for some, and these days, despite being a multiple Grade I winner, one could argue he is a forgotten colt as the GI Kentucky Derby trail kicks into high gear.

But opportunity knocks this Saturday, in the twice-delayed GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn, where the brilliant $95,000 Keeneland September grad will make his 3-year-old debut and get his long-awaited rematch with the rival who snatched away his Eclipse statuette with a conquest of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Essential Quality (Tapit).

“Steve [Asmussen]'s extremely happy with the horse, I personally love the draw, number four in a seven-horse field and you get the favorite down on the rail, so I think we're good to go,” Robison said Wednesday of the Southwest, which was originally supposed to run Feb. 15 but got pushed back two times due to inclement weather in Hot Springs. “Steve never considered another race. From 6-8 weeks ago, he was always on track for this race and I think when they announced Essential Quality was probably going there too, it scared a few people off, but that's where we wanted to go from day one. No excuses.”

After dominating a trio of historic 2-year-old stakes last summer and fall–the GII Saratoga Special S., GI Runhappy Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S.–Jackie's Warrior was regarded highly enough to be hammered down to 9-10 favoritism in the Juvenile, one of the shortest prices of the entire Breeders' Cup weekend. But the speedball was caught too close to a scorching pace of :22.58 and :45.31, and just faded late after making the lead in mid-stretch under Joel Rosario, ending up fourth, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by tripped-out closer Essential Quality.

The nature of that first defeat raised doubts about Jackie's Warrior's ability to see out two-turn races, considering his running style and sprint-leaning pedigree.

“I think there's always been some question about whether he could get a mile and a sixteenth against top-flight horses,” Robison said. “He was not able to do it that day, but I'm very confident he can get it done Saturday. It's a different circumstance, smaller field, and I think Rosario and Steve probably learned a lot from what happened in the Juvenile, so let's see what happens.”

As for potentially trying to throttle the horse's speed down to increase his staying chances, Robison said, “He really is freaky fast, and I remember Steve telling me a long time ago about horses, 'Never take away what they do well.' So if you have a horse who outbreaks the field, don't take that advantage away from the horse, let him go on. He's just a natural speed horse and I think that's what his style will be. The question is going to always be, how far can he take that kind of speed? We'll find out.”

And, if Jackie's Warrior doesn't continue on the Derby trail after Saturday, that will be just fine with Robison, a veteran of the game who deeply appreciates the prestige of big races beyond the Run for the Roses.

“If he turns into a multiple Grade I winner around one turn, that's not the end of the world,” he said with a laugh. “I don't get up in the morning dreaming about a Derby horse. People at cocktail parties only want to hear about the Derby, but most of us in the industry know with these Grade I sprints and one-turn mile races, how important they are. I'm not going to presume what Steve's going to do after this race, but having said that, I think he'll run extremely well.”

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