To go along with each Derby Dozen post, I'll put out a current dark horse candidate.
Awesome Partriot gets the first nod along the road. This son of Awesome Again should have no problem with races up to nine furlongs - really no one knows if a horse will stay the 10 furlongs until they try on Derby Day - which most of the major Derby preps are run at. He's stakes placed, third in Hollywood Prevue at 7 furlongs, and an allowance winner in his last start at two-years-old racing one mile on Santa Anita's natural dirt.
Oh did I mention that he's trained by Bob Baffert, who at last count had 50 Derby hopefuls. With a return to dirt Baffert's winning at a crazy clip out west (44% win and 74% in the money to date) and that's only going to continue with his three-year-old charges.
Listen, it's early, but you could do worse than a two-turn winner on dirt by a Breeder's Cup champion, trained by Baffert, currently sitting between 100-1 to 250-1 at Vegas sports books.
I'm intrigued with Awesome Patriot and I'm always a big Baffert fan, he's an incredible trainer. I think he knows how to condition a horse for the Triple Crown better than most modern day trainers.
ReplyDeleteI loved your Boys at Tosconova comment for the Derby Dozen. Rick Dutrow certainly knows how to make headlines for himself and his horses!
Brian
Thanks for checking in Brian. I feel this Triple Crown season will be extremely entertaining including the addition of Soldat who took all the heat on the front end today and won by half a furlong in his first three-year-old start...of course slop could have helped, but he's onto to the Fountain of Youth.
ReplyDelete