Necker Island, 3rd last out in Indy Derby, targets Ellis Park Derby
Necker Island, who finished third July 8 in Indiana Grand’s Grade 3 Indiana Derby after being claimed for $100,000, is being pointed for the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9, trainer Chris Hartman said.
The day that Wayne Scherr, Raymond Daniels and Jackie Rojas put up the money to claim Necker Island, the son of 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun finished fourth of four in an allowance optional claiming race at Churchill Downs.
But the top two finishers that day were future Blue Grass (G2) winner Art Collector and Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense. Third-place Finnick the Fierce was seventh in the Blue Grass but before that was third in the Arkansas Derby (G1) and second in last fall’s Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at 87-1 odds, edging current Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law that day.
“It was a really good group of horses,” Hartman said.
The Ellis Park Derby will pay out Road to the 2020 Kentucky Derby points on a 50-20-10-5 basis. Necker Island ranks 31st in the current Derby standings with four points.
2020 Ellis Park Derby
| Rank | Silks | Horse / Sire | Rating | Trainer / Jockey | Last Start | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art Collector Bernardini | T. Drury |
| Possible | ||||
| Sole Volante Karakontie | P. Biancone |
| Probable | ||||
| Dean Martini Cairo Prince | T. Amoss |
| Probable | ||||
| Thousand Words Pioneerof the Nile | B. Baffert |
| Possible | ||||
| Shared Sense Street Sense | B. Cox |
| Possible | ||||
| Pneumatic Uncle Mo | S. Asmussen |
| Possible | ||||
| South Bend Algorithms | S. Hough |
| Possible | ||||
| Necker Island Hard Spun | C. Hartman |
| Probable | ||||
| Major Fed Ghostzapper | G. Foley |
| Probable | ||||
| Attachment Rate Hard Spun | D. Romans |
| Probable |