Going into Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, trainer Todd Pletcher had won the Kentucky Derby prep race four of the past eight runnings. Yet it seemed like he had been forgotten when his two entrants, who granted did not look great on paper, were sent to post at odds of 15 and 72 to 1. When the race resulted in a Pletcher exacta, with 72-1 Bourbonic on top of 15-1 Dynamic One, the exacta payout was $453 for a buck. It is very possible that Pletcher saddles Bourbonic in the Derby and his odds are shorter in the 20-horse field than they were in the Wood.
The Road to Kentucky contest was turned upside down with that result as the double-point race awarded 2,228 points. Without Bourbonic, there was no path to victory. Nine players sniffed it out and they were the only ones of nearly 300 players to top 2,500 total for the week. Top score of 3,457 went to Julie Harrington and with that number she joins the top five overall.
This Saturday the free-to-enter Road to Kentucky Contest will feature Oaklawn Park with its Derby prep The Arkansas Derby plus an additional bonus race from Keeneland, the Lexington Stakes.
Four stakes are part of the 13-race Oaklawn card that begins at noon. The Canterbury Racebook opens at 9am.
Concert Tour preps in the six-horse Arkansas Derby. Mr. Jagermeister will again face Whitmore and CZ Rocket when they line up for the $500,000 Count Fleet., the 11th race at Oaklawn.
Spring Tune Up Super Satellite Contests
Four sessions of Spring Tune Up Super Satellites remain. Each session runs weekly Thursday through Saturday with winners advancing to the May 8 Satellite. Entry to each day of the Supers is $10. One player for each 10 entries over the three-day span advances to the May 8 contest. Players can also buy into the May 8 Satellite for $100. In that contest, the top five players win two entries, valued at $1050, to the 25th annual Dog Days of Summer Contest.
There will also be an estimated $2,000 in cash prizes in the Satellite in addition to the aforementioned prizes. All the details are here for the Satellite and here for the Super Satellites.
