It’s two weeks out from the Bluegrass Derby<\/EM> and eleven colts will line up to tackle the Grade II Texas Derby<\/EM>.\u00a0 The lion’s share of the $300,000 purse will go to the fastest colt over the mile and one-sixteenth “good”-rated dirt course.<\/P> Magical Merlin<\/STRONG> (Smarty Jones) is the race’s big name and goes off as one of three co-favorites at 5\/1.\u00a0 The only son of a Grade I-placed Sadler’s Wells horse, ‘Merlin won five of six at two, with his only misstep coming in an oddly flat Breeders Bowl Juvenile<\/EM> performance.\u00a0 He looked on the rebound in his first start at three, the GIII San Somebody<\/EM>, where he closed to within a head of Toxicsuperfreakout<\/STRONG>, and followed that up with a solid run in the Equinics.\u00a0 His 98 speed rating there was a career best, but he never factored into the GII Arkansas<\/EM> Derby<\/EM>.\u00a0 Fifth-ranked, he’s not lacking in the points department, and needs only to show that he’s still interested in this game.<\/P> Empire Maker is one of the hottest sires around these days, and though he’s especially well-represented on the distaff lists, colts like gradetwo<\/EM><\/STRONG>‘s Breeding Empire<\/STRONG> prove that he’s no specialist.\u00a0 The best son of a stakes-placed Seattle Slew mare, ‘Empire needed four tries and a stretch out to a mile to break his maiden.\u00a0 But he didn’t look back, was stakes-placed his next time out, and won the GIII Thousand Islands Stakes<\/EM> three starts ago,\u00a0 He ran evenly over an off-track in the GII Felipe Alou<\/EM> and while a fourth-place finish in the GII Sleepy Fan<\/EM> disrupted his Derby hopes, the 97 speed rating that he earned there commands respect.<\/P> Test Big Mac(Aus)<\/STRONG> (Testa Rossa) is a six-time winner in twelve starts, including two listed stakes at three.\u00a0 He made his graded stakes debut last out in the GII Easy Goer Memorial<\/EM>, going nose-to-nose with GI-winner Wylde Cat<\/STRONG> before kicking clear.\u00a0 He was outrun in the late stages, finishing third, but it was a gritty effort for a first try at such company, and Wylde Cat ended up ninth.\u00a0 This looks like a nice spot for the conservatively-handled colt to show and he may conserve his energy a bit better this time out.<\/P> But he’ll have to get past Uncrumbling<\/STRONG> (Crafty Prospector).\u00a0 Or more to the point, he’ll have to keep Uncrumbling from getting past him.\u00a0 Proxy<\/EM><\/STRONG>‘s entry is the son of a GIII-placed Storm Cat mare and has been similarly brought up through the allowance ranks, including two fine races on “good”-rated tracks.\u00a0\u00a0He’s a closer who thrives on a route of ground and came flying late last time out to win the Easy Goer.\u00a0 The chestnut is the kind of horse that I like: almost always on the board and always running at the end.<\/P> Lenny3<\/EM><\/STRONG> looks knee-deep in interesting three-year-olds this year and will be starting Forty Niner son Burning Flag<\/STRONG> in the Texas Derby.\u00a0 The baby of the field, ‘Flag has started four times and never finished worse than second.\u00a0 He enters this race off an even-running second in an Oklahoma allowance for non-winners of three (this will be his first race outside of that state), where his speed ratings continued a steady upward march to reach 100.\u00a0 J. Turner takes the mount and has been hitting the board nearly half the time this year.\u00a0 The winner of that race was a hit-and-miss allowance horse and ‘Flag may be in for a bit of a shock, but he’s certainly a fast little beastie and an interesting choice. <\/P> Speaking of hot young stallions, how about that Mineshaft?\u00a0 He’ll be represented Saturday by Mine Go Easy<\/STRONG>, a three-time winner who looks to be rounding back into form after struggling at the start of the year.\u00a0 A long grinding run nabbed him third two starts back in a nine-furlong listed stakes over a “good” track.\u00a0 He followed that up with a punchier kick last time out and won another stakes with a 99 speed rating.\u00a0 He was overfaced in the Equinics and versus the likes of Half A World Away<\/STRONG>, but none of those horses are in this race and he’ll be riding high off those confidence-boosters.<\/P> Best combination name award goes to oneworld<\/EM><\/STRONG>‘s Woodyna<\/STRONG>, a Woodman son out of a Dynaformer mare.\u00a0 The brown colt has won just two of seven (his debut race and a listed stakes last\u00a0 year), but he stormed home for third at long odds last time out in the GII Louisiana Derby<\/EM>, recording a career-high 96 speed rating.\u00a0 Young jockey J. Lucas takes the mount and has been having a solid year.<\/P> Storm Cat son Hubba Hubba has had one winner from four sim starters and that’s Bubba Jess<\/STRONG>, a five-time winner out of a Little Vagabond(GB) mare (which means he’s got ??? in his female family).\u00a0 His current connections pulled him out of a $7,500 claiming race last year and though he came to the barn footsore and indeed of a layoff, their patience was rewarded: he’s been three times a listed stakes winner and was third in solid company two starts ago in the GIII Gary Asher Memorial<\/EM>.\u00a0 That race was run over a “good” track and this colt may be a bit of a mudhound: his last win came in a listed stakes in the slop.<\/P> Nathndtroi<\/EM><\/STRONG>‘s Italian Ice(Ire)<\/STRONG> (Street Cry) is the middle foal and second winner from a GIII-placed Seeking the Gold mare.\u00a0 He started his career on the turf but took a giant step forward when switched to the dirt.\u00a0 He’s won two of three thus far this year and appears happiest when he can cruise just a bit off the pace and get first run on the leader.<\/P> Goose Storm<\/STRONG> (Mongoose) has more mileage under his belt than several of these others combined.\u00a0 He’s run sixteen races in his short life, winning two times and hitting the board a total of five.\u00a0 A turf-to-dirt manuver and cut back in distance last time out led to a 10-point jump in his speed rating as he picked up a minor check in the Sleepy Fan.<\/P> And lightly-raced Dandelion<\/STRONG> (Spinning World) rounds out our field.\u00a0 The five-time starter broke his maiden in his third race with a switch to the dirt, then annexed an allowance for non-winners of two with a striking 97 speed rating.\u00a0 Last time out, he was third versus non-winners of three.\u00a0 This is an ambitious placement, but his top number does match up well.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Magical Merlin faces ten<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}