Springboard Mile
Race 12 (11:28 p.m. ET)
A plethora of speed, much of it drawn in outside posts, is a notable feature among the cast of 11 entered in the $200,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. The 2021 Road to the Kentucky Derby series prep for 2-year-olds will be held late Friday evening at the Oklahoma City oval and will offer Derby qualifying points of 10-4-2-1 to the top four finishers.
Outadore is the 3-1 morning line favorite despite not having experience racing on dirt. The Wesley Ward trainee has sufficient class, though, having won on debut at Saratoga and following up with a victory in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint. Last time, the son of Outwork set the pace before fading to third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) in his two-turn debut.
A couple of other Kentucky shippers, both from the barn of Steve Asmussen, are capable of adding fuel to the pace. Cowan, who broke his maiden on dirt before spending the fall on grass, finished third to Outadore at Kentucky Downs before running second in both the Indian Summer S. and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2). Saffa’s Day won at first asking by more than five lengths but ran well below par in the Nyquist S. at Keeneland on Breeders’ Cup weekend. The son of Carpe Diem adds Lasix for the Springboard.
Also invading from Kentucky is the the Brad Cox-trained Joe Frazier, who easily defeated $150,000 maiden claimers first out but tired to third against allowance foes when inheriting the lead going two turns. Others with early foot, like the locally-based Number One Dude and Red N Wild, appear lesser win threats on paper.
Who among the closers could surprise with the right pace setup? Gushing Oil has a right to improve off a disappointing effort in the Oct. 30 Clever Trevor S., in which he trailed in seventh as the 11-10 favorite after getting no pace help at all. However, the son of Dialed In was only 3 1/4 lengths off the winning Game Day Play.
Another to watch out for is Senor Buscador, who rallied from 10 lengths back to win his debut sprinting by 2 1/2 lengths in early November. He’s a Mineshaft half-brother to Sunland Derby (G3) winner Runaway Ghost, thus has a right to improve even more stretching out.
