Kentucky Oaks 2023 trail: Busanda odds, preview, more

As the 2023 Kentucky Derby trail takes a one-weekend pause, the 2023 Kentucky Oaks path continues Saturday in New York.

Occult is the 7-5 morning-line favorite for the $100,000 Busanda Stakes. Post time from Aqueduct is 3:47 p.m. EST, with FS2 showing the 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

The Busanda is the first prep race to pay points on a 20-8-6-4-2 scale toward the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks to its first five finishers. A short field of five will line up to contest this event, so all five will leave with at least some points if they cross the wire.

Chad Brown trains Occult, who fetched $625,000 in the auction ring as a yearling. Alpha Delta Stables campaigned 2016 Oaks third-place runner Lewis Bay for Brown and now aims for another Oaks berth with this daughter of Into Mischief.

After running fourth on debut in September, Occult scored a second-out maiden win Dec. 18 at Aqueduct by 4 1/4 lengths. Manny Franco was aboard the filly that day, but jockey Dylan Davis gets the call Saturday for the Busanda.

Franco will instead be aboard Affirmative Lady (9-5) for trainer Graham Motion. She is still a maiden through three starts but finished second Dec. 3 in the local Demoiselle Stakes (G2).

Gambling Girl (3-1) highlights two Busanda Stakes entries for trainer Todd Pletcher. She won a New York-bred stakes race last September at Aqueduct, then was third in the Demoiselle.

The Busanda is second of Aqueduct’s four points-paying Kentucky Oaks preps, following the Demoiselle. Oaks points will also be at stake March 4 in the $200,000 Busher Invitational and April 8 in the $250,000 Gazelle Stakes (G3).

Here is a look at the field for the 2023 Busanda Stakes (trainers and jockeys in parentheses) with morning-line odds:

1. Gambling Girl (Todd Pletcher, Kendrick Carmouche), 3-1

2. Occult (Chad Brown, Dylan Davis), 7-5

3. Affirmative Lady (Graham Motion, Manny Franco), 9-5

4. Sweetest Princess (George Weaver, Eric Cancel), 12-1

5. Aniston (Todd Pletcher, Jose Lezcano), 5-1

TimeformUS pace projections show favorite Occult going out to an uncontested early lead under Davis.

Kentucky Oaks points top 10

1. Wonder Wheel, 40

2. Leave No Trace, 15

3. Pretty Mischievous, 13

4. Ice Dancing, 12

5. Raging Sea, 11

6. Hoosier Philly, 10

7. And Tell Me Nolies, 10

8. Chocolate Gelato, 10

9. Fun and Feisty, 10

10. Julia Shining, 10

Other Saturday stakes

Here is a look at other stakes races of note taking place Saturday across the U.S. All post times are EST and races can be seen on FanDuel TV.

3:03 p.m. – $125,000 Pasco Stakes, 3-year-olds, seven furlongs, Tampa Bay Downs

Champions Dream (6-5) starts his sophomore season in this race that leads into the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3), the first of Tampa’s two points-paying Kentucky Derby preps, on Feb. 11. Mark Casse trains and Samy Camacho rides the Justify colt, winner of the Nashua Stakes (G3) on Nov. 6 at Aqueduct. Ronald Spatz trains Loco Abarrio (3-1), third-out winner of a maiden optional claiming race Dec. 26 at Gulfstream Park. Handsome Playboy (7-2) won a local allowance race Dec. 21 after running second in Tampa’s Inaugural Stakes earlier that month for trainer Gerald Bennett.

3:45 p.m. ­– $125,000 Likely Exchange Stakes, 4-and-up fillies and mares, one mile (all-weather track), Turfway Park

Kate’s Kingdom (8-5) has won back-to-back stakes races, taking Woodbine’s Ontario Matron Stakes (G3) in October and Turfway’s My Charmer Stakes on Dec. 11. The 5-year-old Animal Kingdom mare will try to stretch her winning streak to three under jockey Jack Gilligan for trainer William Walden. William Morey trains Maybe Later (5-1), who wheels back off a local Jan. 5 allowance score to make her stakes bow. Gulfstream stakes winner Grand Ave Girl (6-1) finished fifth against allowance foes going this one-mile distance Dec. 28 at Turfway.

4:33 p.m. – $125,000 Gasparilla Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, seven furlongs, Tampa Bay Downs

Dorth Vader (3-2) carries back-to-back stakes wins in this prep for Tampa’s only points-paying race on the Kentucky Oaks trail, the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 11. Marcos Meneses gets the call for trainer Michael Yates on the Girvin filly, victor of the local Sandpiper Stakes on Dec. 3. Casse trains Personal Pursuit (4-1), a $500,000 auction purchase who finished fourth Dec. 10 at Gulfstream in the Wait a While Stakes. The Robert Smith-trained Awesome Pic (9-2) crossed second in the Sandpiper, 2 1/4 lengths behind Gasparilla favorite Dorth Vader.

5:22 p.m. – $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes, 4-and-up, one mile, Oaklawn Park

Ginobili (7-5) goes east to Arkansas for trainer Peter Miller as morning-line favorite for the Fifth Season, a race along the path to the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) on April 22. Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. will be up on the 6-year-old Munnings gelding, a Grade 2 winner whose only start of 2022 was a fourth-place run in a Nov. 20 allowance race at Del Mar. Martin Villafranco trains defending race winner Rated R Superstar (4-1), a three-time Grade 3 hero who won Remington Park’s Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial Stakes on Dec. 17 to close his 9-year-old season. Soy Tapatio (9-2) enters off a Zia Park Championship Stakes score Nov. 22 for trainer Robertino Diodoro.