Each year the folks at Hello
Race Fans provide their readers with
industry veterans' selections for the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks and some of
the supporting stakes on each day’s undercard.
They will post the consolidated picks in a spreadsheet on their site on
Friday and Saturday. I am honored and
pleased to be part of the field again this year. While my picks will be there for all to see,
there isn’t room to expound on why I chose what I did ,so, as in year’s past, I’ll
thumbnail that out a bit here.
EDGEWOOD STAKES
My choice in here is on the inside, QUALITY ROCKS. She won the Grade 3 Florida Oaks last out and
did so turning the table on CONSUMER CREDIT who then went on to win the
Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct on April 23. While SUNSET GLOW is favored and the pace
will be light – which she should like with her front-running style, she’s
faltered moving past 7 furlongs while QUALITY ROCKS has been able to take a
graded stakes field at the distance here of a mile and 1/16.
LA TROIENNE
I struggled a bit here between MY MISS SOPHIA and SHEER DRAMA. The deciding factor for me has been MY MISS
SOPHIA’s lackluster second half of her 3-year old season after fighting hard
and being soundly beaten by UNTAPABLE in last year’s Kentucky Oaks. She’s been training very well but going up
against SHEER DRAMA may be too tough a task for her seasonal bow. SHEER DRAMA has improved with each
start this season culminating in a dominating performance in the Grade 2 Royal
Delta at Gulfstream.
ALYSHEBA
PROTONICO came back after injury with a completely masterful
performance in the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland. He had a nice maintenance work in between and
while Castellano got off to stay on slightly favored HONOR CODE, I don’t think
the latter is going to have a strong pace to close into. In fact, the pace should be controlled by
PROTONICO – and these two certainly seem to stand over this field.
TWIN SPIRES TURF
SPRINT
Though the last race was chalky, I’m going long shot in this
field. After a long break following a $62,500 claim last year, CHANNEL
MARKER debuted poorly in a mile, flashing some speed before fading, he
ran a great second in the 5 ½ furlong Grade 3 Shakertown on tax day. HEATAI,
JASIZZLE, GOOD DEED and SOMETHING EXTRA should all be flashing speed. I don’t see Torres having CHANNEL MARKER as
far back as he did in the Shakertown and he should be flying at the end. If the early pace is quick enough, I hope to
cash at a price.
EIGHT BELLS
The Eight Bells features the undefeated 3-year old filly,
PROMISE ME SILVER. You can’t say that
she’s done anything wrong. The only
negative she really has against her is that she’s never run in a graded
stake. Make no mistake, there is most
definitely a step up when you move into the rarified air of a graded stake and
she’s making that step today. For that
reason I went with EKATI’S PHAETON. Yeah,
her last was an absolute clunker, but she had speed for half the race when
being asked to go a mile and a sixteenth.
This gal was NOT made to go that long.
She’s back to a sprint now and her speed should be controlling and if
she can’t get on top, she has proven she can rate and win as well. At a 6-1 morning line she’s providing great
value as well.
KENTUCKY OAKS
Many have written about how deep the quality runs in this
year’s 3-year old male crop competing for the roses in Saturday’s Derby, but
the Oaks field is no slouch either.
CONDO COMMANDO, LOVELY MARIA, I’M A CHATTERBOX, STELLAR WIND and
BIRDATTHEWIRE are all in with a chance.
Should any of these cross the finish line first I would not be
surprised.
The morning line favorite, STELLAR WIND, seems to have the
perfect style for the Oaks. She has the
ability to stalk and her big move after a troubled start to dominate the Santa
Anita Oaks was very impressive. I went
elsewhere.
My whittling down process got me to BIRDATTHEWIRE and I’M A
CHATTERBOX. BIRDATTHEWIRE has had
nothing but trouble in her 2015 campaign and yet still has won 2 of the three
Grade 2’s she’s run in, just missing by a neck in the Davona Dale in her other
start. This type of adversity should
serve her well in here.
I’M A CHATTERBOX has been splendid in her preps down on the
Bayou. She swept the preps at
Fairgrounds and did it gate to wire, from far off the pace and pressing a bit
before taking command. Florent Geroux is
going to be able to react to whatever scenario gets thrown at him as the race
unfolds and have confidence that his mount can get it done.
In a very competitive field, I feel that I’M A
CHATTERBOX is the best horse – and my choice – but I will be using
BIRDATTHEWIRE with her in the exacta.
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