The Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner isn't the only Brad Cox trainee attracting interest in way-too-early analysis of the 2021 Kentucky Derby.
Caddo River, whose name suggests Arkansas ownership, is 30-1 on the morning line for the first Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which Churchill Downs begins on Thanksgiving and continues through Sunday.
A Hard Spun homebred owned by John Ed Anthony, Caddo River broke his maiden Nov. 15 at Churchill with a front-running score of 9 1/2 lengths at one mile. The bay colt came off two seconds in New York, debuting at Saratoga on Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Pangburn, a Congrats mare, produced Caddo River, another tip-off to the colt's Arkansas ties.
Anthony has won the Arkansas Derby three times, each with a different trainer, capturing the Preakness in 1992 with Pine Bluff and repeating a year later with the ill-fated Prairie Bayou, who suffered a fatal breakdown in the Belmont Stakes. Anthony's former Loblolly (now Shortleaf) Stable gained national attention first with late-blooming Cox's Ridge in 1977, winning its first Arkansas Derby with Temperence Hill in 1980 and again with Demons Begone in 1987. Temperence Hill and Prairie Bayou were 3-year-old champions and Vanlandingham (1985) received the Eclipse Award as best older male.
Essential Quality, the BC Juvenile winner, is the early 10-1 individual favorite in the first KDFW. Trainer Cox's first Grade 1-winning male, the Tapit colt is 3-for-3 for Godolphin Stable after his Nov. 7 victory at Keeneland, following an Oct. 3 Grade 1 triumph in the track's Breeders' Futurity. Essential Quality won first out at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard, the same day (Sept. 5) that Caddo River debuted at Saratoga.
Others expected to receive play include two 15-1 shots from high-profile stables. Life Is Good, trained by Bob Baffert, tipped his hand Sunday at Del Mar with a maiden score of 9 1/2 lengths, carrying Mike Smith through 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.40. The Into Mischief colt (same sire as Baffert-trained Kentucky Derby and BC Classic winner Authentic) brought $525,000 at a yearling sale.
Highly Motivated has won his last two of three starts, Keeneland's Nyquist Stakes included, for perennial Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown. Though better known for his turf success, Brown sent out a Preakness (Cloud Computing) and BC Juvenile winner (Good Magic) in the same year.
The list at 20-1 includes Jackie's Warrior, beaten favorite in the BC Juvenile after multiple Grade 1 victories in New York for Steve Asmussen, who has four horses in the KDFW. At the same price is Juvenile third-place finisher Keepmeinmind, representing 2020 Oaklawn Park training leader Robertino Diodoro.
Twenty-two horses have individual odds. A 23rd slot is for future 3-year-old fillies while No. 24 is the inclusive 6-5 designation for all other 3-year-old colts and geldings.
ā¢ Essential Quality is possible, Cox said, for the March 20 Louisiana Derby, a Grade 2 race he won this year with Wells Bayou. His next race could be the Feb. 13 Grade 2 Risen Star, also in New Orleans, where the trainer's four Breeders' Cup winners are preparing for the Fair Grounds meet starting Thursday.
"Right now, he's at Churchill jogging and will be there through November," Cox said on Louisville-based website Horse Racing Nation. "We'll eventually get him down to Fair Grounds and start mapping out a path to the Derby, with likely two preps. I don't have a spot picked out but Fair Grounds and their series is definitely in play."
Cox reportedly is crafting an Oaklawn Park schedule for soon-to-be 4-year-old filly Shedaresthedevil, the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner for Hot Springs co-owner Staton Flurry. That presumably would include the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap and its Grade 2 prep, the Azeri.
ā¢ Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap winner By My Standards is among the favorites in Friday's 15-horse Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. Bret Calhoun trains the 4-year-old colt, a disappointing eighth in the BC Classic. Multiple Grade 1 winner Code of Honor represents Shug McGaughey in the Clark, which like the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks dates to 1875. Silver Prospector, the Grade 3 Southwest winner at Oaklawn for Asmussen, upset Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law over a sloppy Churchill track in last year's Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club.