On Friday at Oaklawn Park, the featured race is the $600,000 Apple Blossom Stakes. Restricted to fillies and mares, the Grade 1 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track and has drawn a field of six.
Untapable headlines the field as the morning line favorite at odds of 6-5 for trainer Steve Asmussen. A homebred daughter of Tapit for Winchell Thoroughbreds, the bay mare was an Eclipse Award winner as a three-year-old and has won nine of her eighteen starts. She has gone winless since her victory in the Apple Blossom Stakes (G1) last year but has been on the board in her last five starts. Florent Geroux will be in the irons and they will break from post position four.
Second choice at morning line odds of 9-5 is Tara’s Tango for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. A four-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song bred and owned by Stonestreet Stables, she has been on the board in eight of her ten starts and is a multiple graded stakes winner. She is coming into this race off of two consecutive victories against graded stakes company at Santa Anita and will break from post position three under jockey Rafael Bejarano.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 6-1 is Forever Unbridled for trainer Dallas Stewart. A four-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song, the Charles Fipke-homebred has won three of her nine starts and has rounded into sharp form. She has won her last two starts against graded stakes competition and was last seen winning the Houston Ladies Classic (G3). John Velazquez will be aboard and they will break from post position five.
There will always be Kentucky Derby entrants that would be much better suited to skip the race entirely and find a better spot if not for the gusto of their well-meaning owners, but the Road to the Derby point qualifying system has been remarkably efficient at making the race more of a level-playing field since its inception four years ago.
On Saturday at Keeneland, the featured race is the $250,000 Dixiana Elkhorn Stakes. Scheduled to be run at one mile on the turf, the Grade 2 event has drawn a field of eight colts and geldings.
With a largely underwhelming, and thus far, slow, group of three year-olds set to contest the 2016 Kentucky Derby, logical handicappers searching for a pick outside of the undefeated and likely highly-favored Nyquist may have already begun the hand-wringing process.
The Grade 1, $300,000 Madison Stakes features a stellar field April 9 at Keeneland as 13 fillies and mares are set to contest the seven furlong event on the main track.
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