Holy Bull is Back!

After a one-year experiment, the Holy Bull is back where it belongs as the first stakes in a series leading toward the Florida Derby - the Fountain of Youth makes up the middle leg.

This year the field looks stacked and depending on tomorrow's result, Gulfstream may hold all the cards for Derby Day. While the Fair Grounds' LeComte looks like a N1X Allowance, the Holy Bull has six stakes-placed colts including a bellwether 100 Beyer horse and favorite Jackson Bend. Here's what the favorite and others bring to the table:

• Jackson Bend - besides the gaudy speed figure, he's also won five straight and been purchased by perennial Triple Crown hopeful owner, Robert LaPenta
• Homeboykris - the lone Grade I winner in the field at the Holy Bull distance of a mile
• Thank U Phillippe - finished second, a 1/16 of a mile behind Buddy's Saint in Grade II Nashua Stakes
• Piscitelli - for a brief moment looked like 50-1 upset winner of Juvenile, but held strong less than a length behind the other long shot, Vale of York
• William's Kitten - Ramsey, Marker, Leparoux ride their Derby hopeful after a decent second in Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club
• Aikenite - a Pletcher-trained hopeful got lots of action finishing fifth in Juvenile and makes his first start of his three-year-old season

Beyond these six there's the Anthony Dutrow-trained Winslow Homer, who in his last start exploded for a 12 and 1/2 length allowance win. The field is stacked and the yes, the Derby race is on....