Arkansas automobile dealer Frank Fletcher is riding in style to Kentucky Derby 149.
Graded winner Rocket Can and undefeated Oaklawn performer Victory Formation rank fifth and sixth in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association 3-year-old poll for the May 6 race at Louisville's Churchill Downs. Brad Cox trains Victory Formation for Fletcher and Spendthrift Farm. The trainer also is looking to the Derby with No. 3 Instant Coffee and newest addition (No. 7) Hit Show.
Hit Show earned 20 Derby qualifying points for winning Saturday's Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct, Manny Franco rode the homebred Candy Ride colt for owners Gary and Mary West, who also bred and raced Hit Show's dam, multiple Grade 3 winner Actress, produced by Tapit. Three for four lifetime, Hit Show got attention when fourth at Churchill Downs in his first two-turn race Nov. 26, from which came recent Gulfstream Grade 3 winner Rocket Can for Hall of fame trainer Bill Mott.
Hit Show prepped for the Withers in a two-turn mile allowance Dec. 17 at Oaklawn, winning by 3 1/2 lengths under Joe Talamo in 1:38.17. The Withers' nine furlongs were clocked in a fast-rated 1:54.71, Cox saying afterward, "He had an opportunity to breeze at Belmont on Monday and we're happy with how the horse was doing leading up to the race. He had plenty of time to recover from his last one at Oaklawn and it set up well. He ran a big race."
Cox entered the one-two finishers in Oaklawn's Smarty Jones mile Jan. 1 in Saturday's Grade 2 $400,000 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Fourteen entered the first Derby prep with 50 points to the winner if Triple Crown eligible. Victory Formation, sired by 2017 Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, is the early favorite from post 13. Angel of Empire, from the first crop of champion and 2017 Arkansas Derby winner Classic Empire, breaks from post six (Flavien Prat and Luis Saez the respective riders).
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, four wins short of a world record 10,000 through Sunday, has three in the nine-furlong Risen Star: Ken McPeek entered Sun Thunder, an 8 1/2-length Oaklawn maiden winner Dec. 31.
• Besides that from Hit Show in New York, the Wests got encouraging news Saturday at Oaklawn. Punchbowl, a homebred Uncle Mo filly trained by Cox, won her debut by three-quarters of a length with Prat aboard. Her six furlongs in 1:11.35 were a tick faster than those of stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Klassy Bridgette, the meet's first three-time winner, for trainer Chris Hartman a race earlier. Last away and five wide into the stretch, she paid $6.80 as second choice in the field of 12 maidens.