Getaway Car tops Virginia Derby; Gowells Delight heads Virginia Oaks

A new chapter in Virginia racing occurs this weekend when Colonial Downs plays hosts to a special three-day meeting, anchored by a repositioned $500,000 Virginia Derby and $250,000 Virginia Oaks on Saturday.

Formerly run on the grass during Colonial's turf-centric summer meeting, the Virginia Derby and Virginia Oaks will now be run on the main track and offer Kentucky Derby (G1) and Kentucky Oaks (G1) qualifying points, respectively. Churchill Downs Inc. owns Colonial Downs.

Although the Virginia Derby has temporarily lost its Grade 3 status owing to the surface switch, the one-turn 1 1/8-mile test has attracted a pair of prior Kentucky Derby prep race winners among its field of 10. The Virginia Oaks, also around one turn but at 1 1/16 miles, has a field of eight.

Leading the Derby field is Getaway Car, who squeaked out a nose victory in last month's Sunland Park Derby for trainer Bob Baffert. It was the first win for Getaway Car since a dominating score in the Best Pal (G3) last August, but the speedy son of Curlin had been knocking heads with the best of his division in Southern California.

In four interim starts, Getaway Car finished second to Citizen Bull in the American Pharoah (G1) and to Journalism in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2). He also finished fourth to stablemate Gaming in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) and to champion Citizen Bull in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).

Trainer Brad Cox entered two horses in the Virginia Derby, though Sam F. Davis S. winner John Hancock will reportedly scratch in favor of next week's Louisiana Derby (G2). Cox will be represented by Rapture, a son of of Uncle Mo who enters off a blowout maiden win at Oaklawn in late January.

The rest of the Virginia Derby field would seem to need significant improvement to contend, based on their recent stakes form. Arguably needing less of a form spike is Omaha Omaha, a late-running Virginia-bred who earned minor shares in both the Jerome S. and Withers S. at Aqueduct.

Gowells Delight, a distant runner-up to leading Kentucky Oaks candidate Good Cheer in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) at Fair Grounds in mid-February, appears the filly to beat in the Virginia Oaks. She is trained by Kenny McPeek, who also sends two-time winner Anonima, who flopped in her stakes debut last month in the Honeybee (G3).

Other potential players include the multiple stakes-placed You'll Be Back and Icona Mama, and the recent maiden winners Fondly and Early On for trainers Graham Motion and Saffie Joseph Jr., respectively.

The Virginia Derby and Virginia Oaks will offer qualifying points of 50-25-15-10-5 to the respective top finishers for the Kentucky versions.