Weekend Watch: 2018 Kentucky Derby hopes begin at Churchill
By Jonathan Lintner
Churchill Downs’ Fall Meet closes Saturday with its second “Stars of Tomorrow” card, the full slate of 2-year-old races highlighted by the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club stakes for the colts and the Grade 2 Golden Rod for the fillies.
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The Kentucky Jockey Club last year produced McCraken, and in 2015 it included Gun Runner, who didn’t win but showed promise in a sloppy running. Who could follow them this year? Saturday’s field of 14 includes two I’m particularly interested to see at the graded stakes level in Gotta Go — as with McCraken, trained by Ian Wilkes — and Arrival, a debut winner for the Mark Casse barn.
Post time is 5:56 p.m. for the wide-open race, which follows the Golden Rod. The horse to watch in that one is without a doubt Brad Cox-trained Monomoy Girl, who’s 3-for-3 and last out picked up a win over the Churchill surface in the Rags to Riches Stakes. The field of 12 goes postward at 4:57 p.m.
Will Sharp Samurai keep his edge?
A winner of four straight on the West Coast, Sharp Samurai could cap a tremendous 3-year-old season on the turf with a victory in Del Mar’s Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. He’s the 5-2 favorite in a field of nine that includes the top-four finishers from last month’s Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita Park. That race Sharp Samurai took by 2 3/4 lengths.
Big Score has been the runner-up to Sharp Samurai in consecutive starts, while Bill Mott left Channel Maker in California for a try at the $300,000 stakes. If Sharp Samurai isn’t back at his best, either of those could turn the tables. Post time is 6:30 p.m. ET.
Mubtaahij finds a softer spot
A big-name horse will run on the Hollywood Derby undercard when Mubtaahij, last seen finishing eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, goes in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes. He’s one of two Bob Baffert trainees in the field along with Irish Freedom, who was third in the Comma to the Top Stakes behind stablemate Hoppertunity in his last race. Mubtaahij beat just three horses in the Classic and is just a start removed from winning the Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita.
Bucchero headlines new NYRA stakes
The first Aqueduct Turf Sprint may overshadow the Grade 3 Discovery on Saturday as the race to watch in New York thanks to the presence of Bucchero, the Tim Glyshaw-trained chestnut who’s gaining steam as a fan favorite. We found out just before his fourth-place effort in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint that the Indiana-bred is out of a rescue mare, making his graded stakes-winning career that much more of a surprise.
Matriarch closes the weekend
A trio of graded stakes cap the holiday weekend at Del Mar with the Cecil B. DeMille, Seabiscuit and Grade 1 Matriarch. The horse to beat in the latter is Cambodia, defeated by just 1 3/4 lengths by Wuheida in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. A horse for the course, the 5-year-old daughter of War Front also won the Grade II Yellow Ribbon and Grade II John C. Mabee over the summer at Del Mar.