$1 MILLION ARKANSAS DERBY

Baffert back with two favorites

Concert Tour and jockey Joel Rosario won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs on March 14. Concert Tour is favored at Oaklawn again today for the Grade I Arkansas Derby.
(The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)
Concert Tour and jockey Joel Rosario won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs on March 14. Concert Tour is favored at Oaklawn again today for the Grade I Arkansas Derby. (The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen)

HOT SPRINGS -- Thoroughbred representatives of Bob Baffert are back.

Baffert, a member of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, trains two of the six horses expected to start in the Grade I, $1 million Arkansas Derby for 3-year-old horses at Oaklawn today, including the morning-line favorite.

The 1 1/8-mile race offers a total of 170 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, with 100, 40, 20 and 10 awarded to first through fourth, respectively.

The shipment of potential 3-year-old champions on jets to Little Rock and in vans to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort from his Southern California barn has long been among the strengths of Baffert's winning ways. Among Oaklawn's Kentucky Derby-qualifying races, Baffert has trained winners of three Arkansas Derbies, a record eight Rebel Stakes and four Southwest Stakes.

"What I like about it is, it's a really short ship for the horses," Baffert said. "It's an easy ship, and it's a good track, and now it's so lucrative with the purses and everything.

"It's a fast track, and it's a friendly atmosphere, and the horses have run well there. They come back well, so it's just fun, and I've taken my best horses there."

The Arkansas Derby post time is scheduled for 6:41 p.m. today. It is the 12th of 13 races on Oaklawn's card.

Baffert-trained Concert Tour, winner of the 1 1/16-mile Rebel on March 13, is the even-money morning-line favorite in the six-horse field.

No fewer than seven horses have started an Arkansas Derby since 1949 when a colt named Cacomo won in a field of five. Oaklawn President Louis Cella said he thought the short field resulted from the talent of the horses entered.

"The reason it's a short field, frankly, it's a testament to the quality," Cella said. "We have six really good horses, and the competition is dodging them."

Baffert said so few entrants can handicap a favorite like his.

"Concert Tour is the target, so when you only have six horses, everybody knows where everybody is," he said. "In a big field, nobody knows."

Others in the field are 3-1 morning-line second-choice Hozier, a son of Pioneerof the Nile also trained by Baffert; 7-2 Caddo River, a son of Hard Spun from the barn of trainer Brad Cox; 6-1 Super Stock, Dialed In's son from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen; 6-1 Get Her Number, also by Dialed In and trained by Peter Miller; and 15-1 Last Samurai, a son of Malibu Moon trained by Dallas Stewart.

Other than Concert Tour, by Street Sense, no horse in the Arkansas Derby field is assured a stall among the 20 in the Kentucky Derby starting gate. The Derby, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., is scheduled for May 1. Arkansas Derby placements of first or second are the only certain shots for the other five entrants at Kentucky Derby qualification.

John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs owns Caddo River, who won Oaklawn's 1-mile Smarty Jones Stakes by a record 10 lengths on Jan. 22. He finished fifth in the Rebel Stakes.

Cox, a Louisville native raised a short walk from Churchill, has never trained a Kentucky Derby entrant, but two 3-year-olds from his barn have qualified this season, including Southwest winner Essential Quality, the most recent Derby future-wager favorite.

Caddo River could give Cox three in the Derby field, but he said there are factors to consider beyond qualification.

"I don't think we want to run in the Derby unless we feel like we have a real shot," he said. "Ultimately, that's going to be up to Mr. John Ed.

"On my end, I want to go into the Derby, if we're fortunate to have three horses, with three live shots, not what I feel like are two live shots right now and another horse just kind of getting in the way. I think the talent's there for him to be a Derby horse. He needs to show up and show that he can swim in the deep end of the pool on Saturday."

As for Caddo River's strategy in the Arkansas Derby field, Cox said it would be different from the one used in the Rebel.

"Little more of a free-running horse, we think," Cox said. "[The Rebel] was just his fifth start, and he was coming off a little bit of a freshening, I guess you could say, being seven weeks between races. We're just hoping that he can kind of get a little bit more of a forward run and maybe the jock drops his hands and kind of let him do his thing and get in a big rhythm and see if that works a little better than it did last time. If it doesn't, we're in trouble, bottom line."

Miller said a less troubled trip than Get Her Number had in his seventh-place Rebel finish would give the colt a shot at Derby qualification, but Miller also said there is more to examine than mere qualification points.

"I've been vaccinated against covid, and I've also been vaccinated for Derby fever, so I'm good," Miller said. "I'm good. We don't have to go to the Derby even if we can. It's just a matter of what the best thing for the horse is and what makes the most sense."

Trainer Bob Baffert holds the trophy after John Velazquez rode Authentic to victory in the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Trainer Bob Baffert holds the trophy after John Velazquez rode Authentic to victory in the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

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