The San Felipe Stakes- Grade II
SA Race 8 1 1/16M Dirt
Purse $400.000 For
Three Year Olds
1st Fox News, trained by D J C Racing Stables
Fox News stamped himself a major contender for Derby honors with a very impressive performance. Settling in towards the back of the field throughout the race he started rolling down the stretch sweeping by everybody with a perfect ride by F Pennington. He wins this race by three quarters of a length in a time of 1:41.68 and now D J C will have to decide if he runs once more or heads straight to Churchill Downs.
2nd Centerpiece, trained by Mb Stables
A rather weird trip for this horse in this edition of the San Felipe. He settled in and then started making a move at the 6.0f mark. He ran a 22 and 3/5ths second quarter which is very unusual for a route race. He still hung in there for a nice second place finish and will most likely get one more prep in for the derby.
3rd Minutes Hand, trained by Fractious
Settling in near the back of the field also during the race, this horse had to weave through traffic to end up running 3rd beaten a length with L H Colon in the irons. He showed some versatility today showing he could come from off the pace. We’ll see where his next prep is and if he can squeeze into the derby field.
4th Gumshoe, trained by EasyMoney Stables
Last year’s Breeders Cup Juvenile champ had about as good of a trip as you can get from the post he had. Stalking the pace set by longshot Processing Class he just couldn’t hold off the late charges of the rivals that beat him. One more prep for this horse will determine if he makes it to the derby field or not. And if he doesn’t it keeps the curse of Juvenile winners to not win the derby.
Summary
The big kick showed by Fox News could be translated to the 1 ¼ distance of the Kentucky Derby and must be considered one of the favorites at this point. Don’t count out Centerpiece next time as he got a rather interesting trip in here. Another deep closer finished third and the fourth place was last year’s Breeders Cup Juvenile winner, Gumshoe, who will need a good finish next out to make the 2018 Derby field.
Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES
