Ed DeRosa of TwinSpires .com takes on TDN's Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato as they handicap each prep race leading up to the GI Kentucky Derby. The three will make $100 Win/Place bets–highest bankroll after the Lexington S. wins.
DeRosa: Smarty Jones S. – The Smarty Jones is the type of race that I'm more excited to bet than pick, but the point of Throwdown is to come up with winning horses, not winning bets, and Warrior's Club figures to get the best trip among the logical trio of he, Petrov, and Uncontested, so the deuce is the tab. Warrior's Club took until his sixth start and restricted stakes company to break his maiden, but despite a 1-for-7 record, any of his last three races look good enough to win this, including a third last out behind top Kentucky Derby prospect McCraken. Uncontested was fourth in that race, and Warrior's Club figures to sit a similar trip here with other speed expected to press Uncontested. Petrov will save ground and make the latest run of all, but could see Warrior's Club getting the jump and outlasting that foe given the short-stretch one-mile configuration at Oaklawn. Selection: #2 Warrior's Club (7-2).
DiDonato: Smarty Jones S. – Thanks to TwinSpires and Ed for being involved with this. Should be interesting with a third competitor this time. I'm going to start things off with a complete stab. Unbridled Eagle only has one race from seven previous efforts that would make him at all competitive here on paper, but he had some excuses in other starts. That one win came on the cut back at Saratoga, but it was a decent enough effort and the Horton homebred is bred to go longer. The trainer change to Steve Asmussen could prove significant, and Unbridled Eagle's works look upbeat enough. Selection: #5 Unbridled Eagle (8-1)
Sherack: Smarty Jones S. – Even with the King's Swan winner and third-place finisher returning with non-efforts in the Mucho Macho Man S. and GIII Jerome S., the lightly raced Petrov looks to have found a perfect spot to stretch out in distance for the first time. A smart debut winner at Churchill Nov. 12, he closed with a powerful late rush to just miss by a head in the aforementioned six-furlong King's Swan at the Big A Dec. 2. The gray, out of a Bertrando mare that graduated at second asking in a 1 1/16-mile affair at Hollywood Park back in 2006, has been training up a storm over the Oaklawn surface since, led by a best-of-200 four-furlong bullet in :47 3/5 Dec. 23. While trainer Ron Moquett doesn't exactly boast the greatest numbers with horses going from sprint to route, it's hard to knock the job that he's done the past two years developing Kentucky Derby starters Whitmore and Far Right. The latter won this race in 2015. With the New York-based Jose Ortiz signed on, the well-drawn Petrov should sit a perfect trip. Selection: #1 Petrov (5-2).
Click here for free Brisnet.com PPs
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
