Remington Springboard Mile: Otto the Conqueror is early favorite

The $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile, Remington Park’s top stakes event for 2-year-olds, drew a field of nine. A trio of runners are barely separated for morning-line favoritism for next Friday's headliner.

The Springboard Mile is a qualifying points race for Kentucky Derby 2024, offering 10-5-3-2-1 points to the top five finishers, and headlines a 10-race program with five other stakes races.

Otto The Conqueror is the slight morning-line favorite at 5-2 odds from the barn of horse racing’s all-time leading trainer, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. The 2-year-old colt by Street Sense has won two consecutive races at Churchill Downs. Both wins came at seven furlongs, with the last over a sloppy surface on Oct. 29. In that allowance event, Otto The Conqueror defeated Honor Marie by four lengths. Honor Marie went on to win the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill on Nov. 25.

Otto The Conqueror will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, who was up in the Oct. 29 allowance triumph.

Raging Torrent will ship to Remington Park from Southern California and is expected to arrive on Monday. Trainer Doug O’Neill already has won the Kentucky Derby twice, with Nyquist in 2016 and I’ll Have Another in 2012. Raging Torrent is the second choice in the morning-line odds at 3-1 and has been entered to go with a blinkers-off equipment change.

Raging Torrent broke his maiden at first asking in July at Del Mar. O’Neill immediately entered him in his first graded stakes race, the Best Pal Stakes (G3), in which he finished third, beaten by 8 3/4 lengths.

That didn’t deter O’Neill’s and his owners’ confidence in the colt. Raging Torrent came back to race in two Grade 1s, the Del Mar Futurity and the American Pharoah. He finished fourth in both of those, adding blinkers in the latter race. Jockey Antonio Fresu is the only rider to handle Raging Torrent to this point and will ride him in the Springboard as well.

Glengarry will travel to Oklahoma City from Oaklawn to make his Springboard attempt. He is the third choice in the morning-line at 7-2 odds. Undefeated through three starts and trained by Doug Anderson, Glengarry broke his maiden by 5 3/4 lengths at first asking on Aug. 28 at Prairie Meadows. Glengarry followed up the first race with an even more impressive victory by 12 3/4 lengths on Sept. 30 in the Iowa Cradle Stakes.

Jockey Ken Tohill was in the saddle for the first two wins. His third trip to the winner’s circle was by only a half-length but may have been his most impressive thus far. It came at Keeneland against open company in the Bowman Mill Stakes with jockey Luis Saez taking over for Tohill. In three starts, Glengarry has earned $177,501 from his three wins, both tops in the Springboard field. Saez will keep the mount on Glengarry.

Magic Grant is the top local stakes winner in the Springboard by virtue of his score in the $75,000 Clever Trevor Stakes at Remington Park on Oct. 27. Trained by Eddie Milligan Jr., the colt broke his maiden in winning the Clever Trevor. Richard Eramia keeps the mount on Magic Grant, who is 8-1 on the morning line.