The Road to the Kentucky Derby series makes a stop at Golden Gate Fields for Saturday’s $100,000 El Camino Real Derby, and multiple stakes winner Mackinnon heads 11 three-year-olds in the 1 1/8-mile test on the Tapeta track.
The winner is guaranteed a spot in the middle leg of the Triple Crown, the May 21 Preakness (G1), and the El Camino Real Derby will award a combined 17 points (10-4-2-1 scale) toward a berth in the Kentucky Derby.
Third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) two starts back, Mackinnon has been installed as the 8-5 morning line favorite. The Doug O’Neill-trained colt won a pair of turf stakes last season, and Mackinnon will look to rebound after a fourth in the Sham (G3) on Santa Anita’s main track. Abel Cedillo rides the chestnut son of American Pharoah.
Boise and Dr Pescado are stakes winners on the Tapeta.
Winner of the Gold Rush S. in early December, Boise will switch back to synthetic after a seventh in the grassy Eddie Logan S. at Santa Anita. Evin Roman has the call for Jonathon Wong.
Dr Pescado, who exits a third in the Gold Rush, captured the Golden Nugget S. in mid-November. Trained by Felix Rondan, the gray California-bred colt be guided by Pedro Terrero.
Stormy Samurai and Unraptured exit allowance tallies at Golden Gate, and last-out maiden winners Blackladder, Del Mo, and Il Bellator are also entered.
