Anothertwistafate's 'next step' a final Kentucky Derby 2019 prep

With 30 points on this year's Kentucky Derby 2019 leaderboard worth nothing but a reroute to another Triple Crown race, the connections of Anothertwistafate have finalized plans to run in a last-chance qualifier Saturday at Keeneland.

The El Camino Real Derby (G3) winner and Sunland Derby (G3) runner-up will headline Keeneland's Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington Stakes, which awards points on a 20-8-4-2 scale to its first four finishers.

Anothertwistafate, a son of Scat Daddy, sits 24th in points and may have wound up in the starting gate without the extra race were there enough defections. But trainer Blaine Wright and company won't chance it.

“I figured we were going to get knocked off the list Saturday,” Wright said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's Larry Stumes. “We’ve got three weeks (from the Lexington Stakes) to the Kentucky Derby, and this way we can get him out of the race and get him to Churchill Downs.”

That, of course, is assuming a win for the Peter Redekop trainee, who won three straight races on Golden Gate Fields' synthetic before finishing a game second to Cutting Humor over the dirt at Sunland Park.

Anothertwistafate has already arrived at Keeneland for the Lexington.

No first, second or third-place Sunland Derby finisher has ever gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, with Firing Line’s second-place run at Churchill Downs in 2015 the closest. However, Mine That Bird, the improbable winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby, earned his place in the gate after finishing fourth in the Sunland Derby.

“I’m looking forward to see if we can take the next step,” Wright told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s right within our grasp. I just hope we’ve done right by him and he continues to get better each race, because he’s going to need to with the company he’ll have to face.”

According to Keeneland publicity, the Holy Bull (G2) winner Harvey Wallbanger and Sueno, third in the Louisiana Derby (G2), will also be using the Lexington as a potential springboard to the Kentucky Derby on points.

Harvey Wallbanger, trained by Kenny McPeek, enters with 10 qualifying points, good for 30th on the list. Sueno is in a bit stronger of a position with his 28 points good for 26th.