Oklahoma Derby Prime Attraction for Life After Triple Crown

Departing was a Triple Crown runner
who went on to run in the Oklahoma Derby

One of the final chances 3-year-olds have to add a Derby win to their resume, the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby has attracted a field of 10 or more in three of the five years since it was regraded in 2013.

A $400,000 race, the Oklahoma Derby has been known to attract Triple Crown runners in past years with Kentucky Derby runners shipping in to Oklahoma City for the prize. Perhaps the most well-known of those horses was Breeders’ Cup winner and Kentucky Derby third Battle of Midway (Smart Strike), who finished second last year.

Since it was regranted its Grade 3 status, the Oklahoma Derby has had a Triple Crown runner all but one year. Of the six Triple Crown runners to run, only one has been able to win the race with two hitting the board.

Last year the Oklahoma Derby had the most runners of any year with three members of the Triple Crown coming to the race. The most exciting runner in the race at the time may have been Girvin (Tale of Ekati), who had won the Grade 1 betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes two starts before. Though by the end of the year, Battle of Midway took that award with his Grade 1 Las Vegas Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile win. The winner of that race, Kentucky Derby 12th Untrapped, also went on to do good things when finishing on the board in three of his five stakes starts in 2018.

Grade 1 Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes runner-up Tale of Verve (Tale of Ekati) made the most Triple Crown race runs of any horse to then go to the Oklahoma Derby when coming in 2015 (Lone Sailor will soon be added to that list after today’s running of the race). He finished second in the Preakness before a seventh in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by DraftKings. The Oklahoma Derby was part of a campaign that also saw him compete in the Grade 1 Travers and Grade 2 West Virginia Derby.

The Triple Crown runner to go off at shortest odds in this race wasn’t a Kentucky Derby runner, it was Preakness runner Departing (War Front). A hyped horse throughout his 3-year-old campaign, Departing came into the Oklahoma Derby off impressive Grade 2 West Virginia Derby and Grade 2 Super Derby victories. That led to the gelding going off at .30-to-1 odds though he was only able to finish fourth in the race.

It should be noted that Shotgun Kowboy is the only favorite to win the Oklahoma Derby in that 2013-on time frame.

This year’s Oklahoma Derby has three Triple Crown runners in Lone Sailor (Majestic Warrior), Diamond King (Quality Road), and Combatant (Scat Daddy). None of them are the morning line favorite with Limation (Alternation) getting that distinction after winning the Grade 3 Super Derby by 5 ¾ lengths over Lone Sailor last time out.

The Oklahoma Derby, contested at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt, is set to go off at 8:06 p.m. central time on Sunday evening.

           TRIPLE CROWN RACE RUNNERS TO RUN IN OKLAHOMA DERBY 2013 - 2018
Year
Horse
Best TC Placing
Oklahoma Derby Placing
2013
Departing
6th (Preakness)
4th
2014
Wildcat Red
18th (Kentucky Derby)
3rd
2015
Tale of Verve
2nd (Preakness)
8th
2017
Untrapped
12th (Kentucky Derby)
1st
2017
Battle of Midway
3rd (Kentucky Derby)
2nd
2017
Girvin
13th (Kentucky Derby)
5th
2018
Lone Sailor
5th (Preakness)
n/a
2018
Diamond King
7th (Preakness)
n/a
2018
Combatant
18th (Kentucky Derby)
n/a


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Impact of El Prado

Image
When El Prado (Sadler’s Wells) was imported to the United States after being purchased from Coolmore by Frank Stronach in the early 1990s, very few breeders were willing to give El Prado a shot.  "No one wanted a son of Sadler’s Wells in America,” Dermot Carty, who bought the horse for Stronach, told Blood-Horse when the stallion died. “Everyone saw him as just a grass horse, but now he’s a broodmare sire, a sire of sires, and he’s made history. It was a gamble … to buy a son of Sadler’s Wells was a major move, but it paid off." But over 20 years later, El Prado has made a major impact on the breed in North America. El Prado started his breeding career at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for Stronach, who didn’t have a stallion operation at the time. Within a few years, Stronach’s opened up Adena Springs stallion facility and El Prado became one of the cornerstones of the operation.   Video courtesy of Thoroughbred Horses in Kentucky "He put us on the map,...
Read more

North America's Champion Second-Crop Sire: Munnings

Image
Munnings When Coolmore’s Demi O’Byrne paid $1.7-million for Munnings as an early 2-year-old, expectation were high for the chestnut son of Speightstown. After winning three graded stakes races and finishing on the board in six others, Munnings retired to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud for $12,500 (approx. €11,523/£8,792) in 2011. That crop produced 109 live foals with 53 of those making it to the track as 2-year-olds. Twenty-seven of those first 2-year-olds went to the winner’s circle with three stakes winners and one graded stakes winner in 2014, allowing Munnings to finish fourth by earnings behind Quality Road (Elusive Quality) on the Leading First-Crop Sires list.  Munnings also finished second behind fellow Ashford Stud Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) by winners and stakes winners (Super Saver (Maria’s Mon) tied with Lookin at Lucky at the top of the stakes winners list). But with 108 runners representing the stallion in 2015, the odds swung in his favor. Munnings had...
Read more

Sires to Watch: North America's First Crop Stallions

Image
One of Animal Kingdom's first yearlings With multiple classic and Breeders’ Cup winning racehorses retiring to stud in 2014, there were many choices for breeders when making breeding decisions for their mares. This year, they’ll be able to see if they made the right decisions when that group of stallions have their first runners on the track. Here are a few of those freshmen sires in North America you may want to keep an eye on this year and next as their first runners get rolling on the track. Animal Kingdom – Animal Kingdom has already had some success with his first crop of 2-year-olds in Australia and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue in the United States. According to The Jockey Club, he has 110 northern hemisphere 2-year-olds in this year and his average at this early season 2-year-olds in training sale sits at $288,750, with his top priced horse being a $550,000 colt from four sold. While they started winning fairly early in Australia, I expect the...
Read more