Louisiana Derby: Track Phantom is favorite for Ky. Derby prep
Two-time stakes winner Track Phantom drew widest in the field of 12 and was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite for next weekend’s Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, one of the first major preps for Kentucky Derby 2024.
Post time for the last of 12 races on the card will be next Saturday at 6:42 p.m. EDT.
The draw was held Saturday at Fair Grounds, where the 1 3/16-mile race will reward the top five finishers with 100-50-25-15-10 points toward qualifying to run for the roses at Churchill Downs on May 4. The winner will clinch a berth in the Kentucky Derby. The second-place finisher is almost certain to get an invitation, too.
If he had not been caught by Sierra Leone late in the slop Feb. 17 in the Risen Star (G2), Track Phantom would have come into the Louisiana Derby with a 3-for-3 record at Fair Grounds. Owned by L and N Racing, Clark Brewster, Jerry Caroom and Breeze Easy, the 3-year-old Quality Road colt won the Gun Runner and Lecomte (G3), the first two Kentucky Derby preps in New Orleans.
Track Phantom and maiden winner Hall of Fame are the two entrants trained by Steve Asmussen, who has won the Louisiana Derby four times, most recently with Epicenter in 2022. Joel Rosario will have the ride on Track Phantom along with the challenge of getting to the early lead out of post 12. At the first three calls of all six of his races, Track Phantom has been either in first place or no farther back than a head in second.
Catching Freedom, who was third in the Risen Star after winning the Smarty Jones on Jan. 1 at Oaklawn, drew post 5 and was made the 4-1 second choice by Fair Grounds morning-line maker Mike Diliberto. The Constitution colt owned by the Albaugh family will be ridden by Flavien Prat, who won last year’s Louisiana Derby riding Kingsbarns.
Common Defense, a maiden winner who finished second Feb. 24 in the Rebel (G2) at Oaklawn, got post 10 and odds of 4-1. One of two entrants trained by Kenny McPeek, the Karakontie colt bred and owned by Tony Holmes will have Brian Hernandez Jr. in the irons.
The Louisiana Derby has produced two recent Kentucky Derby winners who did not cross the finish line first at Churchill Downs. Country House, who finished fourth at Fair Grounds in 2019, was awarded the Kentucky victory after Maximum Security was demoted for interference. Mandaloun, a sixth-place finisher in the Louisiana Derby, was declared a winner nine months after the 2021 Kentucky Derby, because the late Medina Spirit was disqualified for a medication violation.