Trainers make alternate plans for Derby

Two trainers of Oaklawn Park winners are playing the waiting game regarding Kentucky Derby 142.

Both Brad Cox (Dazzling Gem) and Jinks Fires (Discreetness) have backup plans if their horses don't draw into Saturday's Grade 1 $2 million race at Churchill Downs.

Dazzling Gem, fourth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby April 16, is 24th on the list of potential starters and needs four defections to make the field. Discreetness, Oaklawn's Smarty Jones winner in February and owned by Dwight Pruett of Texarkana, is 26th in points from a series of 34 designated prep races that concluded April 16.

"It looks like it will be the Pat Day Mile (the former Derby Trial, renamed in honor of the Hall of Fame jockey, on Saturday)," Fires said, "but I am keeping the (Derby) saddle towel until the fat lady sings."

Jon Court, Fires' son-in-law, rides Discreetness and is off to a fast start at the Churchill spring meeting. Sweeping the first two races Saturday gave Court 498 victories under the legendary twin spires and 3,965 for his career. Court, 55, won his second-straight Arkansas Derby aboard the Fires-trained Archarcharch in 2011.

Cox watched Dazzling Gem, owned by central Arkansas automobile dealer Steve Landers, work five furlongs in 1:00.40 Saturday, opening day at Churchill. Now he must wait to see if the Misremembered colt, a two-time Oaklawn winner and third in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, draws into the field. Entries and post positions will be drawn Wednesday with horses not making the field of 20 going on an also-eligible list.

"He worked super good," Cox said. "He couldn't have worked any better. He seems to have cooled out good. I'm super encouraged by it. Hopefully, we'll draw in."

Cox said he is considering the Grade 1 Preakness May 21 at Pimlico or the Grade 2 Peter Pan May 14 at Belmont Park as Plan B options for Dazzling Gem if the Kentucky Derby bid doesn't materialize.

"Fitness certainly won't be a problem," Cox said. "He's had two mile-and-an-eighth races. We just have to see what happens."

Two Oaklawn winners pointing to the Derby worked Friday at Churchill Downs, Suddenbreakingnews going five furlongs in 59.60 seconds and Whitmore clocking five furlongs in 1:00. Suddenbreakingnews won the Grade 3 Southwest in February at Oaklawn and finished second in the Arkansas Derby, a length and a quarter behind Creator. Whitmore, an early-season winner at six furlongs, finished second in the Southwest and Grade 2 Rebel and third in the Arkansas Derby.

"He's perfect," Whitmore trainer and co-owner Ron Moquett said. "He couldn't have come out of the work any better."

The Moquett-trained Far Right, a two-time Oaklawn stakes winner, finished 15th behind Arkansas Derby and future Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in last year's Kentucky Derby.

"It's easier this time. I know what to expect more," Moquett said. "Last year was like going to a new place and having to figure out where everything is, like where's the bathroom."

Suddenbreakingnews would be trainer Donnie Von Hemel's first Kentucky Derby starter since Arkansas Derby runner-up Clever Trevor in 1989, when Sunday Silence took the roses.

"He's good," Von Hemel said. "He seems to be happy, so we're happy."

Although only two geldings have won the Kentucky Derby since 1929, Von Hemel doesn't see that as a reason to discredit Suddenbreakingnews, especially when dealing with the hoopla of Derby week.

"He's a cool customer. That will definitely help him out," Von Hemel said. "He's a gelding, so he doesn't have amore on his mind."

Creator and Louisiana Derby winner Gun Runner, both trained by incoming Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, are scheduled to have their final pre-Derby workouts today.

Asmussen has four 3-year-old fillies pointing to Friday's Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, among them the one-two finishers of Oaklawn's Grade 3 Fantasy April 9, Terra Promessa and Taxable. Grade 1 winner Nickname, a two-time Oaklawn stakes runner-up, and Royal Obsession also are under discussion for the nine-furlong race, which is wide-open with the defection of unbeaten champion Songbird.

Sports on 05/02/2016

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