A guaranteed spot in the Bluegrass Derby is on the line this weekend in the Sand Castle Derby. As is usual for Lock Preps there is a full field of fourteen colts and geldings hoping to make the Bluegrass starting gate. The mile and an eighth prep is one of just many races on the rich Sand Castle Festival card and carries a purse of a million and a half dollars. The race seemingly comes down to a strong group of locals versus shippers, some of whom look more likely to run well than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The locals are lead by the only grade one winner in the field, Dungeon Dragon. This colt enters off a win in the UAE Night of Stars which was run a sixteenth of a mile shorter than this. In that start he sat a perfect stalking position in fifth early on before steadily moving up and drawing away down the stretch before holding off a belated bid by California Prince whom he will face again here. That colt was ninth early on and closed nicely after having won a Japan \u2013 Local stakes in his prior start. These two colts ran a 102 and 99 speed, respectively. It was the first triple digit number for Dungeon Dragon but California Prince had run a 100 in that prior race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another key local prep was the one mile Grade Three Dubai 2000 Guineas. The top three finishers in that race were separated by mere inches and all of them return in this spot. The winner was King\u2019s Wishes who scored his first stakes win there. This colt came from eighth early on to nail the other two runners on the wire. Interestingly in his previous races he liked to be on or near the lead so we\u2019ll have to see where he ends up in this spot. If there is a chink in his armor it is that in his race prior to the 2000 Guineas he tried a mile and an eighth and could only finish second. Second place finisher The Road To Gold was making his stakes debut. He was sixth early on and had first jump on the winner but couldn\u2019t quite hold on at the wire. The son of Quality Road has never been out of the money in three starts and certainly has some quality of his own. The Road To Gold was just a head behind and mere hundredths of a second behind him came I See War in third. That colt tried to take the field wire to wire and nearly succeeded. He faced quite a bit of pressure in the early stages of the race but was absolutely brave at the wire. He tenaciously hung on, losing just in the shadow of the wire. All three of these colts were credited with a 101 speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most accomplished of the shippers is Crooked Crown. The colt has eight starts under his belt and his best was by far his most recent race. That came in the nine furlong Grade Three Scam which he won by nearly two lengths. It was his second stakes win and first graded win. He sat fifth early on and moved up nicely on the turn before taking the lead at the stretch call. He ran a career best 104 speed in that spot, one of the higher numbers in this field. Also coming off a 104 speed is Brush of Mischief who was most recently second by a half length in the Grade Three Gary Asher Memorial Stakes. He sat fourth early on and was just nipped at the wire. It was his second triple digit speed in a row, having run a 101 in an allowance at a mile and an eighth in which he took the lead from the get go but was run down late to lose by a length. The colt who has the highest career best speed is Box of Justice. That colt ran a 106 two starts back when he took a listed going a mile and an eighth. It was his stakes debut and it was an impressive one as he was thirteenth early on and over eighth lengths back at the top of the stretch but he unleashed a powerful run to get up by a quarter of a length. Off that big race he was entered in the Grade One VT IS 4 LOVERS. He was last early on and was fifteen lengths off the lead at the top of the stretch. He did make a move late but could only get up to seventh. He\u2019ll need to be closer to the front runners early on to win here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only three other horses in this field have breached the triple digit barrier. Wafflehouserocks ran a 104 in his most recent start. In that race he finished second in a listed (his stakes debut) which was run at a mile and three sixteenths. He was midpack early on before closing well to get up for second, beaten a bit more than two lengths, finishing one place ahead of a grade three winner. Quanifiability also comes off a second place finish in a listed where he ran a 102 speed. In that spot he was also midpack early before closing to lose by just three parts of a length behind a horse who was already a graded winner. Adevilsonlyfriend is the only one of these three who comes off a win. He took a listed while running a 100 speed. He was fourth at the first call but moved up to third by the second before making a nice move around the turn to win by a length and a half. The son of Candy Ride is out of a grade one winning mare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only other stakes winner in the field may be its most interesting runner. Inspector Campbell is a son of Wootton Bassett who is five for five running on the dirt. His last three of those runs have come at a mile which the furthest he\u2019s ever run. He likes to sit just off the pace and it has obviously been successful for him. He ran a 97 in that last start. Flying Lawman XXX has the most starts in this field with twelve. He is graded placed going a mile and a sixteenth but that placing came back in August of 2021. Since then he\u2019s been off the board in five of his six starts. The last horse in the field is First Artillery who is just stakes placed. He made his stakes debut in early February going a mile and a sixteenth and the Justify colt closed from last to finish a solid second with a 99 speed. That earned him a chance tun run in a grade three next out but his rally fell short, finishing sixth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good luck to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A guaranteed spot in the Bluegrass Derby is on the line this weekend in the Sand Castle Derby. As is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"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-57720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57720","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\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57722,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57720\/revisions\/57722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}