Keeneland

THE Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes is the last big Kentucky Derby trial and points earner on the west coast and the Brad Cox-trained Further Ado heads the eight-horse field.

He comes off a second placing in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby following a Grade 2 win in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill last autumn.

Spendthrift Farm’s colt is the race’s only graded stakes winner. He won his Keeneland maiden by 20 lengths last season and his second to eventual Florida Derby runner-up The Puma in the Tampa Bay Derby is the best form on offer.

Cherie DeVaux’s Reagan’s Honor comes into stakes race company for the first time after winning two contests against easier competition at Fair Grounds where he nearly broke the track record for a mile and half a furlong on his last start.

The grey Great White is an interesting outsider for John Ennis, a Co Meath native. The colt is two from three including a listed win last time. Ennis, who had a Derby runner in Epic Ride in 2024, said on Blood-Horse: “He is an improving horse, and if he gets enough points in the Blue Grass for the Kentucky Derby, I think it will be worth going to the Derby.”

Santa Anita

It’s a tight betting market at the top of the west coast Grade 1 with Bob Baffert predictably having two of the favourites in the Santa Anita Derby, which offers the same 100 down to 10 for first to fifth place in Kentucky Derby qualifying points as the Blue Grass.

Potente, another son of Into Mischief like last weekend’s two trial winners, looks the number one off his two runs, two wins and a head win in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. He cost $2.4 million from the Saratoga Sale in 2024.

“It was pretty impressive for him in his second out to win a stakes like that. He was just getting rolling at the end, so distance-wise a mile and an eighth is not going to be a problem for him at all.” Baffert said on Blood-Horse.

Baffert also trains Cherokee Nation, a $1.15 million Keeneland September yearling. It took the colt six runs to break his maiden but he did contest plenty of graded races and he won by 10 lengths at a mile last time.

Jeff Mullins runs another well fancied one in Intrepido, second to the Baffert-trained Plutarch in the Grade 3 Robert B Lewis but a Grade 1 winner at two in the American Pharoah Stakes before running fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Trainer Doug O’Neill also has two candidates, Robusta and Vitruvian Man. The form lines are tied in as Robusta lost by a head to Potente in the San Felipe and was unplaced in the Robert B Lewis. He has beaten Cherokee Nation on his second start at two.

Mark Glatt’s So Happy is two wins from three and also to the fore in the morning line odds. He was third behind Potente and Robusta in that San Felipe after winning his debut and then the seven-furlong Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes but is a son of the sprinter Runhappy.

Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial (11.34pm) could also throw up a few late comers on the Derby trail. It features Chad Brown’s unbeaten in two Gotham Stakes winner Iron Honor, last year’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner Napoleon Solo for Chad Summers, and the Bill Mott-trained Gulfstream maiden winner Steel.