Turfway hosts first Derby, Oaks preps in Battaglia Memorial and Cincinnati Trophy

Turfway Park enters the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep picture this week under the lights. Derby aspirants will line up Saturday in the $175,000 John Battaglia Memorial, while fillies will have an opportunity to earn Oaks points Friday night in the $175,000 Cincinnati Trophy. The scheduled post times for each race is 8:55 p.m. ET.

Because both races are run over Turfway's synthetic Tapeta surface, rather than dirt, qualifying points for both races are lower than similar events held at other tracks this time of year. The respective top five finishers finishers will earn Derby or Oaks qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis.

In the 1 1/16-mile Battaglia, most eyes will be on First Resort. The Godolphin homebred has been stabled at Turfway all winter with trainer Eoin Harty, and thus has had to work around a lot of inclement weather in advance of his season debut.

First Resort concluded his juvenile campaign with a 2 1/4-length score in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at Churchill Downs. His ability over Tapeta remains to be seen, but if his grass form is an indicator, the son of Uncle Mo was a useful fourth two starts back in the Summer (G1) at Woodbine, a race dominated by European shippers.

Baby Max, last-out winner of the Leonatus S. over returning rivals Shan and Banks, was flattered when Leonatus runner-up Chunk of Gold finished a surprise second in the Risen Star (G2) last weekend. The aptly named Coming in Hot also exits a stakes win over the track, his occurring in the 6 1/2-furlong Turfway Prevue in early January.

Dual stakes winner Studlydoright was a retreating fourth in recent Derby preps in New York and has yet to run on Tapeta, an issue Lecomte (G3) fifth-place finisher Maximum Promise also faces. Others of note include last-out allowance winner California Burrito and King of Ashes, who broke his maiden last time over the Tapeta surface at Gulfstream.

The one-mile Cincinnati Trophy drew a similarly large field. Much of the confirmed class, like stakes winner Foxtastic, stakes-placed Presha, and Claiborne's allowance-winning homebred Admit, drew outside posts. Somethinabouther, upset winner of the Mazarine (G3) at Woodbine in late November, will start from the middle of the pack.

But other several other stakes newcomers will also be worth a look, too. Just Ruthless dominated allowance foes in her only prior run at Turfway, while Bracelet and White Rocks both exit convincing maiden victories.