The Fountain of Youth Stakes

Fountain of Youth Stakes:

The field is loaded with speed with no fewer than 6 horses with a need the lead attitude. Given this my pick goes with This Ones for Phil. He does have good speed but he does not need the lead to win. And he is trained by Rick Dutrow who took over the training of this horse before his last race and This Ones for Phil ended up earning the highest beyer of any horse so far this year. And going from post 12 it should allow Edgar Prado to have options leaving from the gate. If you wanted to add some value I would use This Ones for Phil in an exacta with Beethoven and Theregoesjojo.

Sham Stakes:

This race is interesting in many ways, first The Pamplemousse looks like main speed and the class of the field. The big knock against him is his pedigree in that he is by Kafwain who was a miler at best. Another knock against him is that he will be a very short price. So I went to the far outside with the rapidly improving Take the Points. His beyer figures have gone up with every race, and the post position is of little concern as Take the Points has good positional speed. One interesting horse based on pedigree is Mr. Hot Stuff. He is a full brother to Colonel John who won the Santa Anita Derby and The Travers Stakes last year. Mr. Hot Stuff just broke his maiden with a good 96 beyer and he may offer good value.

Road to the Kentucky Derby

This is the first of numerous posts about the Road to the Kentucky Derby. This Saturday presents us with an exciting opportunity to start narrowing the contenders down. First and foremost is the Fountain of Youth(II) at Gulfstream Park. The Fountain of Youth is led by the trio of This Ones for Phil winner of the Sunshine Millions Dash, Capt. Candyman Can winner of the Hutcheson, and Notonthesamepage winner of the Spectacular Bid. Now we move all the way to the West Coast to Santa Anita Park where they will be running the Sham Stakes(III). The Sham Stakes is led by San Rafael stake winner The Pamplemousse. Next we move to New Mexico where they will be running the Borderland Derby. While there is no stand out horses here there always seems to be a horse or two that's able to move along the trail. Next, we head back to the East coast to Turfway Park for the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes. Also like the Borderland Derby no major horse are entered but there always seems to be a horse that's able to keep moving forward. Finally there is the Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel Park in Maryland. This small stakes usually doesn't produce anything for the Derby but it can move them along for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Please come back Friday night for picks and analysis for all of the three year old races discusses.