Trainer Steve Asmussen has won the Remington Springboard Mile a record six times and on Friday night will takes a serious shot at adding a seventh with Otto the Conqueror in the Road to the Kentucky Derby prep.
The Remington Springboard Mile, highlight of a stakes-laden program, offers a purse of $300,000 and Kentucky Derby qualifying points of 10-5-3-2-1 to the respective top five finishers.
Otto the Conqueror has won two of three, including an Oct. 29 Churchill Downs allowance over seven furlongs in the slop. The son of Street Sense proved four lengths best that day, and has been tremendously flattered since.
The runner-up in that allowance, Honor Marie, later won the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2), while third-placed Just Steel turned in an upset of the Ed Brown S. on the Nov. 25 Kentucky Jockey Club undercard.
The Iowa-bred Glengarry has proven an effective sprinter, winning all three outings over six furlongs, and now the son of Maximus Mischief will get to test his two-turn prowess. Glengarry was most recently a half-length winner of the Bowman’s Mill S. at Keeneland.
Trainer Brad Cox will send out two in the Springboard Mile. Maiden winner Gettysburg Address weakened to fourth after setting the pace in the Street Sense (G3) at Churchill on the same card that saw Otto the Conqueror win, while Fidget enters off back-to-back overnight wins at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Raging Torrent invades from Southern California, where he earned small checks in the Best Pal (G3), Del Mar Futurity (G1), and American Pharoah (G1). However, the Doug O’Neill trainee never seriously threatened in any of them.
The local contingent is led by Magic Grant, who posed at 23-1 upset in the Clever Trevor S. over seven furlongs in late October. The son of Good Magic erased a 10-length deficit to win by 4 1/2 lengths in what was a maiden-breaking effort.
