Looking at the Lane’s End
– The 12-horse B-team assembled to run on Saturday in the G2 Lane’s End is hardly a field to get excited about, but since two of the starters have already banked enough graded stakes earnings to guarantee a Kentucky Derby post and the winner will earn a Derby berth with their $300,000 share of the purse, the race demands some attention.
Halo Najib, coming off a sixth-place finish in the Fountain of Youth, is the morning line favorite at 7-2, but he looks like an easy toss from the top spot, having won only a maiden special and the restricted OBS Stakes, as does Turf War, who finished ninth in the Southwest Stakes as the 2-1 favorite. That start was the Dixie Union colt’s first since he deadheated with Z Humor in the Delta Jackpot, a race that has become “one of the most dramatic examples in recent years of what some handicappers call a ‘negative key race’,” as Steven Crist points out (DRF+).
Cannonball intrigues in this spot with his stalking style, but he hasn’t won a race since the King Cugat last October, finishing third in each of his following starts. Yet, he does look faster than several of these and should have no problem with nine furlongs.
One horse who might be worth checking out is Chitoz, one of two entries for trainer Todd Pletcher (the other is Duke of de Buqe, 2-for-4 in state-bred races over the Aqueduct inner track and a half-brother to Balto Star, winner of the 2001 Lane’s End). Making his second start off a layoff, Chitoz shows some early speed, an affinity for Turfway, and gets blinkers off here. Another is Adriano, an A. P. Indy colt trained by Graham Motion who also exits the Fountain of Youth, a race in which he tried dirt for the first time, broke from the far outside, and finished ninth after a rough trip. The FOY followed what looked like a breakthrough performance on the Gulfstream turf in January, and he could find that form again on Saturday. (Note: Ablaze With Spirit, who ran second to Adriano in that allowance event, returned to win the Jim Orbit Stakes with a 90 Beyer in February.)
– Sierra Sunset is injured and will miss the Derby. Trainer Jeff Bonde said the Rebel Stakes winner has a hairline fracture in his left front ankle and will require at least three months recuperation.
– Thoroughbred Daily News reports that Kent Desormeaux has picked up the mount on Georgie Boy for the Santa Anita Derby, even though he’s committed to ride Cool Coal Man in the Kentucky Derby. Desormeaux replaces Michael Baze, who rode Georgie to victory in the San Felipe (and replaced injured regular rider Rafael Bejarano). “It was a tough call, but it was a mutual decision,” said trainer Kathy Walsh. “Mr. Schwary felt a more experienced rider was in order.”
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