Santa Anita will kick off the stakes action on their opening day card with the $100,000 Daytona Stakes. A Grade 3 event carded at six and a half furlongs on the downhill turf course, the stakes race has drawn a field of thirteen colts and geldings.
No Silent has been installed as the morning line favorite in the wide open field at odds of 7-2 for trainer Gary Mandella. A six-year-old son of Silent Name (JPN), he is a seven-time career winner and has won three of his five starts this year. He rose the ranks from winning a claiming race in August to winning the Eddie D. Stakes (G3) in October and was last seen finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1). Gary Stevens will be aboard from post position twelve.
Second choice at morning line odds of 9-2 is Holy Lute for trainer James Cassidy. A five-year-old son of Midnight Lute, the gray colt is trying for his first graded stakes victory and has been on the board in thirteen of his 21 starts. He won a minor stakes race at Del Mar over the summer and is stepping back up to stakes company after finishing second in an optional claiming race. Santiago Gonzalez will be aboard from post position nine.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 8-1 is The Great War for trainer Wesley Ward. Purchased for $1 million as a yearling, he has won four of his thirteen starts and is trying to earn his first win against graded stakes competition. He was last seen finishing a disappointing twelfth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) and will be trying to rebound. Kent Desormeaux will be in the irons and they will break from post position ten.
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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