Kentucky Derby Blog

Crisp won the Santa Anita Oaks 2010. Crisp ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.50, outfinishing pacesetter All Due Respect by a neck. Blind Luck, the 2-5 favorite, closed from last on the backstretch to finish a neck behind All Due Respect.

Sent off the 5-1 third choice in the seven-horse field, Crisp paid $13.60, $8 and $2.80 while starting the $1 exotics worth $47.80 (exacta), $99.20 (trifecta) and $644.80 (2-4-5-6 superfecta). All Due Respect gave back $8.20 and $3.20 at 6-1, and Blind Luck returned $2.10 to her disappointed backers.

Owned by Los Angeles’ Michael Talla, Crisp capped last season with a maiden victory in her second start and began her three-year-old season with a one-length win in the Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) on January 10 at Santa Anita before the Las Virgenes.

Bred in Kentucky by James Jones and Randy Swanson, Crisp improved to three wins in five career starts and earnings of $252,120. She is the first starter for her dam, the unraced Sir Cat mare Cat’s Fair.

Blind Luck has cemented her position as a clear leader in the three-year-old filly division, and the Pollard’s Vision filly will try for her third straight Grade 1 win and fourth overall on Saturday at Santa Anita Park in the $250,000 Santa Anita Oaks (G1).

Blind Luck, who was nominated to the Triple Crown, made her fans sweat in her most recent start, closing from last to win the Las Virgenes Stakes (G1) by a nose in the final stride of her season debut on February 13 (video).

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Blind Luck won the Oak Leaf Stakes (G1) in October before a third-place finish in the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) on November 6 at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita Park meeting. She closed her two year-old season with a dominant seven-length win in the Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1) on December 20 at Hollywood Park.

Owners Mark DeDomenico, John Carver, and Hollendorfer purchased Blind Luck privately after she won her career debut by 13 1/4 lengths in June at Calder Race Course. Since the purchase, she has rewarded her current connections with four wins, one second, and one third in six starts.

Other entrants include Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) winner Crisp, Grade 3-placed winner All Due Respect, and impressive debut winner Sister Dawn.

March 06, $250,000, 3yo, f, 1 1/16M, Santa Anita Park, 3:38 PM PT

Three-time Grade I stakes winner Blind Luck and rising star Amen Hallelujah are the favored individual fillies in Churchill Downs’ 2010 Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, but oddsmaker Mike Battaglia is betting that the mutuel field, or “all others,” will be the favored betting interest when the three-day pool wraps up early on Sunday evening.

Battaglia installed “all others” – a betting interest that includes all 3-year-old fillies other than the 23 individual betting interests in the Oaks Future pool – as the narrow 4-1 choice in the 2010 pool. Blind Luck, expected to be a heavy favorite to score her fourth Grade I win in Saturday’s Santa Anita Oaks (GI), is close behind as the 5-1 second choice and the favored individual filly, while Amen Hallelujah, an impressive winner of last week’s Davona Dale (GII) at Gulfstream, is next at 6-1.

The three-day pool that opens at noon (all times EST) Friday, March 5 provides the only opportunity for racing fans to place an early wager on 3-year-old fillies that are contenders for the $500,000-added Kentucky Oaks (Grade I), America’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies. The 1 1/8-mile race is scheduled for Friday, April 30 – the eve of the $2 million Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (GI). Wagering in the pool will conclude Sunday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m.

The Kentucky Oaks Future Wager pool runs concurrently with Pool 2 of the 2010 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which also opens at noon Friday. The Derby pool will close on Sunday at 6 p.m., 30 minutes prior to the end of Oaks pool betting.

The Oaks Future bet provides fans with an opportunity to wager on contenders for the Kentucky Oaks weeks in advance of the race at odds that could be more attractive than those they would receive on the day of the race. The Kentucky Oaks Future bet is a $2 minimum “win” wager. There are no scratches and no refunds in the Oaks Future Bet. If Churchill Downs officials determine that injury or illness will prevent one of the individual fillies in the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager pool from participating in the race, wagering on that betting interest will be suspended immediately.

Eventual Preakness (GI) winner and Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra won last year’s Kentucky Oaks by a record margin of 20 ¼ lengths, but she was not the favorite in the 2009 Oaks Future Bet. The bettor’s choice in the pool was Justwhistledixie, who closed as the 5-2 favorite over Rachel Alexandra (3-1) and Stardom Bound (9-2).

Christine Daae, an impressive allowance winner last week at Gulfstream Park, is listed 8-1. Other respected members of this year’s KOFW pool include 2009 2-year-old filly champion and Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI) winner She Be Wild; Evening Jewel, a close runner-up to Blind Luck in the Las Virgenes (GI) at Santa Anita; and Switch, a close third in the Las Virgenes. Each of those fillies is listed at 12-1.

From both a visual and speed figure perspective, the performance of the weekend was Eskendereya running away from the field at Gulfstream Park. Buddy’s Saint certainly has an excuse for his poor performance as he got bumped and pinched pretty badly as the field went into the first turn. Without that trouble would he have won? Seems unlikely considering how good Eskendereya looked during his stretch drive, but he probably would have finished better than 9th. Runner-up Jackson Bend ran another solid race, although he never threatened the winner for the top spot.

Eskendereya, who figures to move way up in the Kentucky Derby rankings, has now won three of five races with one second. He more than doubled his career earnings to $275,700 with the winning purse of $150,000.

Sent off as the third choice, Eskendereya paid $9.80, $4.20 and $3 while topping a $35.20 exacta. Jackson Bend, second in the Holy Bull (gr. III) at Gulfstream to begin his season Jan. 23 for trainer Nick Zito, returned $3.60 and $2.10. Aikenite, also from the Pletcher stable, was $3.60 to show.

Todd Pletcher’s Connemara closed from dead last to pass a tiring pace setter, Ranger Heartly, in mid-stretch. Connemara made his big move from the half mile mark to the ¾ mile mark, clicking of an internal fraction of 22.86, and then came home in average splits to take the prize. Haimish Hy ran the final eighth of a mile fastest of the field and nabbed 2nd at odds of 25/1. Connemara will likely move forward from this race (although the race came up pretty slow in terms of a speed figure) but as for the rest of the field, it’s difficult to see any as serious contenders for the Derby.