Lookin at Lucky reportedly will ship outside California for Derby preps
DiscreetCat
Moderator
from The Villages Daily Sun:
It seemed that California racing had its Kentucky Derby horse, as Lookin At Lucky returned to the winners circle following his victory in the Grade-I Cashcall Futurity at Santa Anita on Saturday.
When Lookin At Lucky won the race, he basically wrapped up the Eclipse Award for the top 2-year-old colt or gelding. He has now won five of six starts. His only defeat was by a head in the Breeders Cup Juvenile. All six of his starts have been on synthetic surfaces.
When trainer Bob Baffert was asked what was next for his champion colt, he replied he would be rested, then have two races prior to the Kentucky Derby. That had to make California racing officials assume that one of the two races would be the Santa Anita Derby, a premier Derby prep in the past.
It was what Baffert said next that had to make California racing officials cringe on the dirt. That means California wont have the champion 2-year-old and current Derby favorite as a drawing card in their big race.
It seemed that California racing had its Kentucky Derby horse, as Lookin At Lucky returned to the winners circle following his victory in the Grade-I Cashcall Futurity at Santa Anita on Saturday.
When Lookin At Lucky won the race, he basically wrapped up the Eclipse Award for the top 2-year-old colt or gelding. He has now won five of six starts. His only defeat was by a head in the Breeders Cup Juvenile. All six of his starts have been on synthetic surfaces.
When trainer Bob Baffert was asked what was next for his champion colt, he replied he would be rested, then have two races prior to the Kentucky Derby. That had to make California racing officials assume that one of the two races would be the Santa Anita Derby, a premier Derby prep in the past.
It was what Baffert said next that had to make California racing officials cringe on the dirt. That means California wont have the champion 2-year-old and current Derby favorite as a drawing card in their big race.
Comments
Baffert isn't a Oaklawn guy at all, I hope you got to cash that Tampa Bay under !! I cannot wait to collect on that one after the season is over in two weeks.
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Says Lucky will either go here or New York! Bring him on! The dirt here suits the Socal horses well. lol ask larry zapeye.
"I've got a lot of young horses and I've got to spread them out," Baffert said.
Among those is Tiz Chrome, who won Saturday's $50,000 Stuka Stakes by four lengths.
"He's a real serious horse, real serious," Baffert said.
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Every year during the derby preps I tell myself I'm done with futures (last year I had Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge, pointless to say how furious they made me) yet somehow I find myself excited for the first round of derby futures already :huh:
The pari-mutuels futures are obviously a different story, as there's rarely any value to be found there aside from the Round One field entry. Perhaps when (if) they expand the betting menu beyond 23 individual horses, then that will become a viable option. Ocasionally a horse with long odds in the first round of futures will blossom (I Want Revenge was 54/1 in Round One last year), but when the mdiea pundits talk about what a big overlay this or that horse was in the pari-mutuel futures, they're speaking with the benefit of hindsight. Realistically, it's hard to pin down any one horse as an overlay at those kinds of prices. Even the horses that i annually take @ triple-digits (and i have one very nice prospect already) are complete shots-in-the-dark, and are pretty marginal even at those prices. The only reason i do it is that you can potentially win a lot of money for a relatively small investment, and of course it's fun to follow and root for your future-bet horses as the months progress. I know i had a lot of fun with The Pamplemousse last year (i had first taken him @ 150/1 while he was still a maiden), but of course i also woke up to a major disappointment on the morning of the Santa Anita Derby.