It is on at Oaklawn! Saturday, 3/29/25, features lucky race 13! The Arkansas Derby is set to post at 7:48 PM ET in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Dating back to 1936, this Grade I race has produced a number of champions including the one and only Grand Slam winner, American Pharoah. This very important Kentucky Derby prep races offers 100-50-25-15-10 points to the top five finishers, respectively. The Arkansas Derby has a purse of $1.5 million dollars.
Furthermore, the field of nine 3 year-old thoroughbred colts (Brereton’s Baytown has been gelded) will race for 1 and 1/8 miles on the dirt. The contenders are as follows by post/horse/jockey/trainer/owner/morning-line odds/and Kentucky Derby prep points as applicable:
- Brereton’s Baytown/Marshall Mendez/Paul McEntee/Baytown Partnerships and Trawitzki Thoroughbreds, LLC./30-1
- First Division/Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr./Kenneth McPeek/Deann Baer, Brett Logan and Bill Baxter/20-1
- Publisher/Flavien Prat/Steve Asmussen/Gus King and Estate of Brereton C. Jones/6-1/10 points, ranked 41st
- Bestfriend Rocket/Nik Juarez/D. Wayne Lukas/Frank Fletcher Racing Operations, Inc./20-1
- Speed King/Rafael Bejarno/Ron Moquett/Triton Thoroughbreds, LLC., Naber Racing, LLC., Bryan Hennigan, Doug Rapier and Ron Micetic/15-1/25 ppoints, ranked 23rd
- Sandman/Jose Ortiz/Mark Casse/D.J. Stables, LLC., St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and CJ Stables/3-1/29 points, ranked 20th
- Monet’s Magic/Luan Machado/Ben Colebrook/Midway Racing 2023, LLC./20-1/2 points, ranked 62nd
- Coal Battle/Juan Vargas/Lonnie Briley/Norman Stables, LLC./7-2/70 points, ranked 4th
- Cornucopian/John Velazquez/Bob Baffert/SF Racing, LLC., Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, LLC., Stonestreet Stables, LLC., D. Bashor, Determined Stables, R. E. Masterson, TJ Ryan, Waves Edge Capital, LLC. and C. Donovan/7-5
First, don’t miss the other amazing Kentucky Derby prep race this Saturday, The Grade I, $1 million dollar Curlin Florida Derby will post about an hour prior, at 6:42 PM ET. These races will be shown on television. Watch FS2 from 12:30 PM to 4 PM and again 4:30 PM to 7 PM ET. Following, FS1 will show racing from 7 PM to 8 PM ET. Meanwhile, CNBC covers 6 PM to 8 PM ET. Additionally, FanDuel TV has all day varied racing coverage. Furthermore, the Fukuryu on the Japan Road To The Kentucky Derby races Saturday as well!
Thoroughbred U is ready for these races! Thank you for checking in on the progress on The Road To The Kentucky Derby. My home track, Keeneland is one week out from opening day. Plenty of pictures and posts to follow.
