The Grade 3, $100,000 Megahertz for fillies and mares at a mile on the grass is the featured race on the January 18 MLK Day holiday card at Santa Anita.
In a wide-open betting affair, 7/2 shot Glory leads the field of 12 following her third-place performance December 27 in the Grade 3 Frankel Stakes. The Jerry Hollendorfer trainee had won consecutive allowance races before that effort and will be in search of her first stakes victory, with three previous tries in a pair of grade 3 races and a grade 1. Glory has won 3 of 9 starts for earnings of $145,370. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will ride breaking from post 2.
Stormy Lucy (4/1) finished second in the Frankel behind Glory and will try to turn the tables on that foe. The multiple graded stakes winner captured the Grade 1 Matriarch before the runner-up finish in the Frankel and appears poised to make her presence felt once again. The classy veteran performer, who has won 8 of 32 career races while competing almost exclusively in graded stakes over the past two years, is trained by Ed Moger who will give a leg up to another Hall of Fame jockey in Kent Desormeaux.
Gender Agenda (6/1) was the upset winner of the Frankel last time out and is a logical choice. Trained by Carla Gaines, the veteran mare unleashed a powerful closing kick to win by double digit odds. She will be a factor once again if able to repeat that effort, but will be a much shorter price.
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.
Kentucky Derby Points System Doing Its Job
08 May 2016There 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...
Leave a comment