Kentucky Derby 2019 Radar: Anothertwistafate's plans set
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Photo:
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Anothertwistafate, the dominant El Camino Real Derby winner on synthetic, will switch to the dirt next for the Sunland Derby
(G3), the New Mexico prep that will serve as his proving ground on the Kentucky Derby 2019 trail.
Trainer Blaine Wright told the San Francisco Chronicle that "the timing is right," given the Sunland Derby is a major prep on March 24 offering points to the Top 4 finishers on a 50-20-10-5 basis.
Should Anothertwistafate win it, he's off to Churchill Downs. Or connections could regroup, going in the April 27 California Derby back home at Golden Gate Fields as a prep for the Preakness Stakes, for which the son of Scat Daddy earned a fees-paid berth with his El Camino Real Derby score.
On Feb. 16, his seven-length score going 1 1/8 miles earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure. It marked the third consecutive win for Peter Redekop's $360,000 colt since Anothertwistafate's debut loss sprinting on the main track last November at Santa Anita Park.
“He’s run four times and he’s come away from the gate quick every time,” Wright told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We hope to transfer that to dirt. They’re faster on dirt, but he should be faster as well.”
In selecting the Sunland Derby, Wright turned down options such as Turfway Park's Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), formerly known as the Spiral. That race does run on synthetic, but only awards 20 qualifying points to its winner and still would mean potentially running a major prep on dirt anyway. Connections also considered taking on Southern California's big guns in the Santa Anita Derby (G1).
The Sunland Derby, run at nine furlongs, has produced one Kentucky Derby winner in 2009's longshot, Mine That Bird. Additionally, in 2015 the Santa Anita-based Firing Line finished second in the Derby coming out of New Mexico's prep.
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