Los Alamitos Futurity 2018: Post positions, odds and more
A compact field will head postward for Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity, but in it are multiple horses carrying hopes of running in the 2019 Kentucky Derby.
Just last year, under similar circumstances, Instilled Regard and Solomini were involved in a stretch battle that also involved McKinzie, who missed the Derby due to injury but later in the season returned to win another Grade 1 race.
Two of those were trained by Bob Baffert, who has won all four runnings of the Futurity since its move from Hollywood Park. This time he'll again saddle the likely Top 2 choices in Improbable and Mucho Gusto, both last out stakes winners. Jerry Hollendorfer, who had Instilled Regard in his care, will send Dueling postward Saturday after his sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Extra Hope could relish the stretch out to 1 1/16 miles for trainer Richard Mandella, while Savagery is another who should like two turns and King of Speed has multiple stakes wins in his own right, although his best races so far were run on turf.
Here's a closer look at contenders:
| 1. Improbable | 6-5 |
| 2. Savagery | 8-1 |
| 3. Dueling | 6-1 |
| 4. King of Speed | 15-1 |
| 5. Extra Hope | 7-2 |
| 6. Mucho Gusto | 3-1 |
Tune in
The Futurity goes as Race 5 at Los Alamitos, set for 5:28 p.m. ET. TVG will air it with on-site coverage, or you can watch live streams through advanced deposit wagering services such as NYRABets.
Also on the card
Two races later, in the seventh, it's the fillies' turn in the Grade 1, $300,000 Starlet Stakes. Baffert also won this race last year, and he sends perhaps an even stronger 1-2 punch this time in multiple stakes winner Chasing Yesterday, the half-sister of American Pharoah, as well as Mother Mother, who won her one-turn stakes race last time at Churchill Downs. Vibrance, third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, is also in the field.
The Starlet awards points toward the 2019 Kentucky Oaks on a 10-4-2-1 scale to the Top 4 finishers, same as the Futurity does for next year's Derby.
Los Alamitos Futurity handicapping
• Full-field Los Alamitos Futurity analysis
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• How to bet the Futurity, Starlet for big return
• Our handicapping system suggests this exacta
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