Saturday’s “Road to the Derby Kickoff Day” at Fair Grounds features eight stakes races worth $100,000 apiece, led by the Gun Runner S. for Kentucky Derby (G1) hopefuls and the Untapable S. for Kentucky Oaks (G1) aspirants. Both factor as qualifying races for the Derby and Oaks, respectively, offering points on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis to the top five finishers.
Gun Runner S. – Race 7, 4 p.m. ET
The 1 1/16-mile Gun Runner has attracted a short field of five, but with the potential to showcase a serious player on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The Brad Cox-trained Admiral Dennis stamped himself as one to follow in his good-looking maiden score at Churchill Downs.
Render Judgment, a promising second to Built on debut, promptly broke his maiden at Churchill for Ken McPeek. A belated fifth in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) last out, Render Judgment might get stronger pace support here. Magnitude was only seventh in the Iroquois (G3), but the Steve Asmussen pupil gave a better account of himself when winning a Churchill allowance in his latest. Rounding out the quintet is Chris’s Revenge.
Untapable S. – Race 11, 6 p.m. ET
The companion Untapable S., held at a slightly shorter trip of one mile and 70 yards, marks the stakes debut for all eight entrants. Whit Beckman is double-handed with Drexel Hill, who sports noteworthy form at Woodbine, and Churchill first-out winner Her Laugh, who is cross-entered to the Letellier Memorial.
Golden Gamble, coming off a maiden romp for McPeek, hopes to turn the tables on her prior conqueror, California Sunset, from the Cox barn. Eddie Kenneally’s Amarth is the only contender with both maiden and allowance scores to her credit, and she has the measure of Stable Currency from the latter. Paris Lily represents the powerful Godolphin operation and Brendan Walsh, although her maiden win was relatively slow. The same caveat applies to course-and-distance maiden scorer Prima Bella.
Tenacious S. – Race 9, 5 p.m. ET
Last year’s Gun Runner hero, Track Phantom, takes on $3 million-earner Saudi Crown in the 1 1/16-mile Tenacious S. Saudi Crown found Fair Grounds a congenial rebound spot after a flop in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup, and the Cox charge hopes for a similar retrieval mission here.
But Track Phantom is also a speedy horse-for-the-course who competed well in all four Derby preps at Fair Grounds, winning the Lecomte (G3), placing second to Sierra Leone in the Risen Star (G2), and finishing fourth in the Louisiana Derby (G2). A fading 11th in the Kentucky Derby, Track Phantom makes his second start back from a freshening for Asmussen.
Warrior Johny just broke through with his first stakes victory at Parx for the Rigney Racing/Phil Bauer barn. Godolphin/Cox sophomore Kinetic, a full brother to Grade 3 scorers Shared Sense and Comparative, brings a three-race winning streak into his stakes debut. At the opposite end of the career profile is Happy American, who makes his fourth straight appearance in the Tenacious. Happy American, the winner of the 2022 edition, had missed by a nose in 2021 and finished third in 2023. Canadian classic scorer Velocitor, most recently runner-up in the Charles Town Classic (G2); Confidence Game; and Bo Cruz round out the cast.
Other stakes
The stakes action begins with the fourth race (2:30 p.m. ET), the Sugar Bowl S. for juveniles at six furlongs, and the multiple stakes-placed Tough Catch is the one to beat. Next up is the Letellier Memorial (fifth race at 3 p.m. ET) for two-year-old filly sprinters, where Untapable cross-entrant Her Laugh could opt to run. Walsh’s blueblood maiden Sycamore Shoals should draw support in the wake of her third to highly-regarded Chasten.
Graded turf veterans Gigante and Another Mystery bring the best form into the Buddy Diliberto Memorial (10th race at 5:30 p.m. ET), while older turf distaffers Stir Crazy, Callie’s Grit, and Lute Warm square off in the Blushing K D S. (sixth race at 3:30 p.m. ET) over the same 1 1/16-mile trip. One Timer leads the turf dashers in the Richard Scherer Memorial (eighth race at 4:30 p.m. ET).
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