HOT SPRINGS -- Owners and trainers have no control over what post position their horses get, but that doesn't mean they don't fret about it.
Owner Dwight Pruett's anxiety peaked just before Wednesday's post-position draw for Saturday's $1 million Arkansas Derby for 3-year-olds. His horse, Discreetness, isn't even considered one of the favorites in the Grade I race at 1 1/8 miles.
80th Arkansas Derby
Post positions, horses, jockeys, trainers and morning-line odds for the $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. Post time is scheduled for 6:08 p.m.
PP HORSE;JOCKEY;TRAINER;ODDS
1 Discreetness;Court;Fires;20-1
2 Cutacorner;Birzer;Van Berg;50-1
3 Creator;Santana Jr.;Asmussen;10-1
4 Suddenbreakingnews;Quinonez;DKVHemel;5-1
5 American Pioneer;Bejarano;Catalano;8-1
6 Unbridled Outlaw;Lanerie;Romans;10-1
7 Dazzling Gem;Talamo;Cox;12-1
8 Whitmore;I.Ortiz, Jr.;Moquett;9-2
9 Luna de Loco;Bravo;Asmussen;30-1
10 Cupid;Garcia;Baffert;2-1
11 Gray Sky;Vazquez;Lukas;30-1
12 Gettysburg;Velazquez;Pletcher;6-1
RACING FESTIVAL OF THE SOUTH SCHEDULE
DATE RACE CONDITIONS DISTANCE
4/9 $400,000 Fantasy (G3) 3-yo fillies 1 1/16 miles
WINNER Terra Promessa JOCKEY Ricardo Santana Jr. TIME 1:10.36
4/10 $400,000 Ct. Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) 4-up 6 furlongs
WINNER Subtle Indian JOCKEY Ramon Vazquez TIME 1:10.91
4/14 $150,000 Carousel F&M, 4-up 6 furlongs
4/15 $600,000 Apple Blossom (G1) F&M, 4-up 1 1/16 miles
4/15 $100,000 Bachelor 3-year-olds 6 furlongs
4/16 $125,000 Northern Spur 3-year-olds 1 1/16 miles
4/16 $125,000 Instant Racing 3 fillies 6 furlongs
4/16 $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) 4-up 1 1/8 miles
4/16 $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) 3-year-olds 1 1/8 miles
BOLD indicates Kentucky Derby prep races
"I'm having a hard time, a really hard time," Pruett said.
Discreetness drew post No. 1 in the 12-horse field.
Rebel Stakes winner Cupid, who shipped in Wednesday from Southern California for trainer Bob Baffert, drew post 10 and was established as the 2-1 morning-line favorite.
Discreetness was made 2o-1 on the morning line, with back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the Southwest Stakes and the Rebel figuring into the equation.
"Sometimes you get exactly what you didn't wish for," Discreetness trainer Jinx Fires said.
Same could be said for Gettysburg, who drew post 12 for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velasquez.
Gettysburg, the only 3-year-old without a race over the Oaklawn Park surface, is coming off a second-place finish in the March 20 $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes.
The gray son of Pioneerof the Nile is listed at 6-1 on the morning line, the respect a nod to Pletcher, who has won four Arkansas Derbies, and Velasquez, who has won 5,493 career races.
The Arkansas Derby, the final major prep for the May 7 Kentucky Derby, and the fourth of Oaklawn Park's series of races for 3-year-olds hoping to make it to Louisville, Ky., is scheduled for 6:18 p.m. Saturday.
It will the 11th of 12 races on the final day of the 2016 meet at Oaklawn Park.
It works both ways, as far as the draw goes.
Trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel said he was pleased by the fourth post position drawn for Suddenbreakingnews, his trainee who drew the 13th post for the March 19 Rebel Stakes and broke from post 14 for the Feb. 15 Southwest Stakes.
"The four is good," Von Hemel said. "As you get further from the first turn, the post position gets less relevant, but we're happy with the four. Four, five or six, we're plenty happy."
The Arkansas Derby, run at 1 1/8 miles, allows for 110 more yards to the first turn than the horses had in Southwest or the Rebel, both at 1 1/16th miles, as well as the 1-mile Smarty Jones on Jan. 18.
Suddenbreakingnews overcame his draw to win the Southwest from far back, but he was unable to recover from a comparable post position in the Rebel, when he finished fifth, 4¾ lengths behind the winner Cupid.
Whitmore, owned by Harry Rosenblum of Little Rock and trained by Ron Moquett of Hot Springs, drew the No. 8 post, which satisfied his connections. Whitmore drew the 12 for the Rebel and finished second, 1½ lengths behind Cupid.
"I'm fine with the draw," Rosenblum said. "We're in four post positions from where we were last time, so I'll take that any day."
"I said I wanted something between the fourth and the ninth, and that fits," Moquett said. "I can't complain."
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. is listed to ride Whitmore, at 9-2 the morning-line second choice. Ortiz flew in from Aqueduct Racetrack in New York for the Rebel.
"We think we have a very good chance," Rosenblum said. "We're glad to know our rider's coming back, so we'll have a rider who's familiar with the horse."
Discreetness will be ridden by Jon Court for the fourth time at Oaklawn, and it isn't the first time the son of Discreet Cat has received an unfavorable draw for one of Oaklawn Park's Kentucky Derby prep races.
Post 14 contributed to Discreetness' seventh-place finish in the Southwest Stakes, when he was 8 wide on the first turn.
Discreetness was tucked inside after breaking from post 4 in the Rebel, and never got going in another seventh-place finish.
"When you draw the one post, sometimes you can get stuck in there, and you have to throw out your strategy," said Fires, who won the 2011 Arkansas Derby with long shot Archarcharch. "You can get in trouble down there if you don't get off to a good start, so you have to leave there riding, because if you don't, you're going get shuffled behind a lot of horses and get boxed, and you're in trouble around the first turn. We'll have to figure out how to be in a good position."
Sports on 04/14/2016