Road to the Kentucky Derby: Forte Odds Drop After Win in 3-Year-Old Debut

Forte lived upwards to his identify Saturday, and at present the 2-year-old champion has risen to go the favourite for this year’s KY Derby.

The Sweeney Todd Pletcher-trained colt scored an telling four-and-a-half length victory inwards the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park nigh Miami. The 1-2 betting favorite stayed slow the leaders for most of the 1-1/16th stat mi race before jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. swept Forte to the outdoors as they exited the last turn.

They easily bust outside from a three-horse wad of Cyclone Mischief, Rocket Can, and Mage downwards the stretching to mark an impressive four-and-a-half length victory inwards 1:43.12. It was perhaps made to a greater extent impressive past the fact that Forte was coming cancelled a four-month break up after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile inward November.

Pletcher, though, said he wasn’t the least fleck shocked by the colt that has now won quartet unbowed races, all of which hold been graded stakes.

We variety of carefully laid it come out and set him inward a program that would assign him in the precondition to live ready to run and noneffervescent having elbow room for melioration and room to keep to develop,” said Pletcher, a two-time KY Derby winner, around the layoff. “I guess we were capable to accomplish that.”

With Saturday’s win, Forte earned 50 points toward qualifying for the May 6 Bluegrass State Derby. He at present has 90, a tote up that certainly should live sufficiency to set him inwards the race. However, the colt sired by Violence is expected to rush 1 to a greater extent clip – the Apr 1 Everglade State Derby at Gulfstream – before making the trek to the Bluegrass Region State.

Forte Now Clear Kentucky Derby Favorite

Oddsmakers in Vegas took note of hand of Forte’s performance. Last week, Forte was the +750 favourite on Circa’s Bluegrass State Derby futures get on and had dropped to +500 before Circa unsympathetic betting on Friday. By Sunday, in one case wagering resumed, he was moved down feather to +400, or 4-1.

Those are really low odds, especially with 2 months left wing before the Run for the Roses.

While I’m impressed with Forte’s abilities, his racing style concerns me some for the Derby. Forte likes to stay on near two-to-four lengths slow the leader before making his go at the stretch. It works in littler fields, as Forte and many other horses show, but the Kentucky Derby tin feature article upwardly to 20 horses. That increases Forte’s chances of potentially getting trapped midway through and through the race.

Also, Ortiz Jr., an Eclipse Award-winning jockey inward tetrad of the utmost quintuplet years, has not ruined inward the money at one time in his half a dozen Derby mounts.

Only single other Equus caballus is existence offered at betting odds to a lesser extent than 10-1 on the Circa board. That’s Arabian Knight (+925), who won the southwestern United States Stakes on January 28 at Oaklawn Park, but has in time to nock any qualifying points because he was previously trained past Bob Baffert, who is currently suspended from the Louisville track.

The colt was moved to Tim Yakteen’s stables before Winston Churchill Down’s February 28 deadline inward ordering to go eligible for the Derby. Arabian Knight testament likely run next inwards either the April 1 Land of Opportunity Derby or the Apr 8 Santa Anita Derby, both of which award 100 Bluegrass State Derby qualifying points to the winner.

Raising Cain, Practical Move Also Win Derby Preps

Two other horses also earned 50 qualifying points in Derby prep races on Saturday.

Raise Cain, a 23-1 shot, scored an upset on an cancelled caterpillar tread in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct inward New York.

With Jose Lezcano aboard, the Ben Colebrook-trained colt found himself inward 11th come out a quarter of the way through the Swedish mile race, but he and Lezcano patiently made their right smart through and through the field and found daylight heading into the stretch. He ended upward winning past seven-and-a-half lengths.

Colebrook said he felt the 15-horse field worked inwards his horse’s favor.

“I thought it was a lawless race,” he said. “It was definitely tough, but I thought a magnanimous force field would facilitate him to follow honest. He’s so laid dorsum and he’ll doh whatever a rider asks him. He’ll fit through gaps and chance holes. I kind of thought that would live a serious thing, especially with all the pace. I would experience sort of had that than some demon inwards a little field.”

Meanwhile, crosswise the country, Yakteen scored a triumph with Practical Move winning the San Felipe Stakes.

In his world-class race since winning the Los Alamitos Futurity inwards December, Practical Move rallied from existence inward the midsection of the bundle on the backstretch to garner his second unbent graded stakes win. Jockey Ramon Vazquez kept the colt on the inside, and they were able-bodied to take a leak their run coming out of the final good turn to win past two-and-a-half lengths.

Unlike to the highest degree of Yakteen’s Derby contenders this one did non come as a transfer from Baffert’s stable.

“He is a phenomenally gifted horse,” Yakteen said. “I am amazed at how warm he is and how he has matured from a two-year-old to a three-year-old. Everything has fallen into place.”

The trainer added after the race he expects Practical Move to make another scratch line before head to Louisville.

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