On Saturday at Gulfstream Park, the stakes action will kick off with the $150,000 The Very One Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three sixteenths on the turf, the Grade 3 event has drawn a field of six fillies and mares.
Dacita (CHI) has been tabbed as the morning line favorite at odds of 2-1 and is one of three fillies in the race for trainer Chad Brown. A five-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy, she has won seven of her eleven starts and was a graded stakes winner at Saratoga last summer. She has been on the bench since finishing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1). Javier Castellano will be aboard and they will break from the rail.
Second choice at morning line odds of 5-2 is Guapaza (CHI), another Chilean import for trainer Chad Brown. A five-year-old daughter of Seeking the Dia, the bay mare has won six of her seventeen starts, all of which came in her native country. She has not raced since July of last year but has been training steadily for her stateside debut. John Velazquez will be aboard and they will break from post position three.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 6-1 is Quiet Kitten for trainer Marcus Vitali who will also saddle Valid as the favorite later in the day in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2). A four-year-old daughter of Kitten’s Joy, she has won seven of her nineteen starts and will be trying to earn her first graded stakes victory. She was last seen finishing second in the Starter Stakes at Gulfstream Park and will have Nik Juarez aboard from post two.
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.
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.
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