Good Monday morning to all of my Degens out there. This weekend was crazy with sports stories with the start of the MLB season, Jordan Spieth breaking a huge slump and winning on the PGA tour, and the Final Four games. Keeneland kicked off its Spring Meet and there were 3 Derby prep races this weekend. So, let’s dive in.
The Wood Memorial was the first to run Saturday and was pretty ho hum except for the winner, Bourbonic, went off at 72-1 and went from last to first in the stretch to earn a spot in the Kentucky Derby. The always cool, Kendrick Carmouche sat chilly on Bourbonic and unleashed a monster close in the stretch to pick up the win. Again, I’m not sure how good the New York contingent are this year but hats off to Kendrik and Bourbonic.
Next up was the Bluegrass Stakes from Keeneland. Essential Quality was your heavy favorite, but I had been looking at that race hard all week and really liked Highly Motivated’s chances. In a race that lacked any pace, I had anticipated that Castellano would put Highly Motivated on the lead and have a chance to put the field to sleep and win. Luis Saez had a different idea. He brought Essential Quality closer to the pace and it did the trick as he got by Highly Motivated at the wire to win and lock his spot in the Derby and possibly stake his claim as being the favorite.
The Santa Anita Derby closed out the Derby prep races and Umberto Rispoli and Rock Your World did just that to the field. Making only his third career start, Rock Your World was sent right to the front and fought off all challengers to drive away and win by four lengths. It was impressive to see as he set solid fractions and still had gas in the tank. He will be an interesting player when it comes to the first Saturday in May.
That’s it for this week. We have a lot of awesome things coming up this week, including LB’s Meat Market Monday and another round of the DegenX game on Saturday. Speaking of Saturday’s, if you are near the Lexington area, StableDuel will be out at Mirror Twin Brewing again to watch the races and enjoy the weather. Stop by and hang out. Let’s get it.
