With just two major Kentucky Derby prep races left to be decided, betting for the 140th Run for the Roses is starting to come into focus.
Kentucky Derby betting field comes into focus with final preps
Tapiture and Bayern are the focus of horse racing action this weekend as odds to win the 2014 Kentucky Derby start coming into sharper focus with the Arkansas Derby and Toyota Blue Grass.
Wesley Hitt
The top 20 in the 2014 Kentucky Derby Points Standings will earn starting spots in the gate for the race, and several highly regarded three-year-olds with no Derby points to date will be in action on Saturday. The $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) and the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass (G1) both offer 100-40-20-10 points to the top four finishers.
At Oaklawn Park, a field of nine will go in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) led by the 9-5 morning line favorite Tapiture, who has 42 points and currently 20-1 on the Derby futures list, which is good enough to lock up a starting spot in Louisville in three weeks.
Bayern is the second choice on the morning line at 2-1 and the Bob Baffert trainee will be making his stakes debut, meaning he has not raced in any Derby points races to date. A top two finish will get him to Louisville, while a third place finish and 20 points would put him on the bubble.
He is 16/1 on the current Kentucky Derby odds list, according to KentuckyDerbyOdds.ca.
The colt beat first level allowance foes by 15 lengths in his last start at Santa Anita. Baffert has had plenty of success shipping runners in from the west coast into Hot Springs. Dating back five years, the Hall of Fame trainer is 15 for 27 at Oaklawn Park including a win in this race in 2012 with Bodemeister.
The D. Wayne Lukas trained Strong Mandate is 9-2 on the morning line and figures to take some betting action. The colt was second in the Southwest and fourth in the Rebel (G2) in his last two starts. The colt has 11 points which puts him 27th in the standings. He would need a top three finish to get into the Kentucky Derby field.
The Toyota Blue Grass drew a field 15, with a maximum of 14 that can start. While 19 Kentucky Derby winners prepped in this historic race, since the shift to polytrack the race has lost some of its luster as a major Derby prep. Street Sense was the last Derby winner to use the race as a prep, grabbing the roses in 2007.
This year’s race is a wide-open affair led by the Chad Brown trained Bobby’s Kitten, who is coming off a sharp win against allowance foes at Tampa Bay Downs on turf on March 8. As a juvenile, the colt won the Pilgrim Stakes (G1) and ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). The Blue Grass will be his first start on polytrack.
His main foe likely will be the Todd Pletcher trained Gala Award, who won the Palm Beach Stakes (G3) on turf at Gulfstream Park on March 1. Like the morning line favorite, this colt will be making his debut on polytrack. The colt is 5-1 on the morning line.
No betting favorite has won the race since Peace Rules got the job done in 2003. There are plenty of longshots that are worth a good look.
Pablo Del Monte is 12-1 on the morning line and was third last out in the Hutcheson (G3) behind the talented Wildcat Red, who went on to win the Fountain of Youth (G2) and then run a game second in the Florida Derby (G1).
Pletcher will saddle Tampa Bay Derby (G2) runner up Vinceremos (8-1) and Coastline (8-1) was beaten just a nose and a head when third in the Spiral.
The Toyota Blue Grass will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 at 4:30 pm (ET).
