Kentucky Derby undercard preview: Jackie's Warrior back for more, Cox has 2 in Derby City
Jackie’s Warrior, winner in five of his last seven races, returns to Churchill Downs on Saturday, where the 4-year-old colt will face off against the reigning Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner in the $750,000 Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes.
The seven-furlong race is one of six graded stakes races on the Derby Day card leading up to the Run for the Roses.
On Derby Day last year, the Steve Asmussen-trained colt won the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile. After finishing second in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont last June, Jackie’s Warrior won Grade 2 Amsterdam and H. Allen Jerkens Memorial stakes races at Saratoga, then took the Grade 2 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx Racing near Philadelphia last September.
He ran in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and led through the first half-mile, but gave way in the last quarter to finish sixth. In his first race since the Breeders’ Cup, Jackie’s Warrior won the six-furlong Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn, going wire-to-wire in a time of 1:09.09 over a sloppy sealed track.
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Aloha West won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and makes his 2022 debut Saturday. The 5-year-old sired by Hard Spun has five wins in nine starts, with the win last November at Del Mar his first in a graded stakes.
A field of 10 is expected to run in the Churchill Downs, with a scheduled post time of 4:31 pm.
The Derby Day card features 14 races, with the first post time set for 10:30 am.
Bell’s the One seeks second Derby City Distaff
Bell’s the One will look for her second Grade 1 Derby City Distaff win on Saturday as the 6-year-old mare is part of an expected field of eight in the seven-furlong race.
The Neil Pessin-trained horse has 11 wins in 23 starts. That includes three at Churchill, with the Grade 3 Winning Colors and her Derby City Distaff win both coming in 2020.
Trainer Brad Cox has two entered in the race, including 4-year-old filly Just One Time. With Flavien Prat aboard, she beat Bell’s the One in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes by three-quarters of a length last month at Keeneland.
Post time for the race is scheduled for 2:48 pm.
Brown fields 2 in Churchill Downs Distaff
Trainer Chad Brown plans to send out Speak of the Devil and In Italian for the Grade 2 Longines Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile, the first graded stakes race on the Derby Day card.
It will be the American debut for Speak of the Devil. The 5-year-old mare previously raced in Europe, where she won five times in 14 starts.
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In Italian, a 4-year-old filly, has won her last three starts and comes off the Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes at Gulfstream Park two months ago.
Those two horses drew the outside posts in the field of eight. To their inside will be Lady Speightspeare. The 4-year-old filly won her first four starts, all at Woodbine, but she’s yet to win since moving to U.S. tracks in December. The Roger Attfield-trained filly ran third last month in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland.
Post time is scheduled for 12:36 pm.
Sy Dog highlights American Turf
Sy Dog will look to stay perfect in his young career as the 3-year-old colt trained by Graham Motion highlights a field of 11 in the Grade 2 American Turf.
After winning twice as a 2-year-old, the colt made his 2022 debut in Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland. Irad Ortiz Jr. rallied the colt from last place to win the April 8 race by three-quarters of a length.
Post time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race is 3:40 pm.
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Dream Shake, who ran second in last year’s Pat Day Mile, will return to Churchill Downs a year later and enter the first Knicks Go Overnight Stakes, a mile race with a $160,000 purse.
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The Peter Eurton-trained colt won an allowance race at Keeneland on April 10 in his first race in eight months. The 4-year-old has two wins in eight races and seeks his first stakes win. Besides finishing runner-up in the Grade 1 Pat Day Mile last year to Jackie’s Warrior, Dream Shake also finished third in last year’s Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
The race will also feature 2020 Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense. The Brad Cox-trained 5-year-old horse has six wins in 17 starts. In his last start, a March 24 allowance race which he won at Fair Grounds, he set a record covering a mile and 70 yards in 1:39.91.
A dozen 4-year-olds and up are slated to race, with a scheduled post time of 1:14 pm.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Jackie's Warrior back for more, Brad Cox has 2 horses in Derby City
