I, for one, am quite surprised by the number of entrants that signed up for the Italian Derby.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Actually, my surprise is more at the lack of entries for this mile and a half\u00a0 <\/SPAN>G1 event for 3 year olds.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Last year, there were 13 runners and this year trainers have shunned the event with only 6 desiring to compete for the $500k up for grabs.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In any case, we have six that will give it their all and here\u2019s a look at each of them:<\/P> 1.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Shapeshifting\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>2-1<\/SPAN><\/P> Shapeshifting has four starts to date and stretched out to 11 furlongs last time in an allowance race.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He finished 3rd<\/SUP>, some 9 lengths back as the beaten 7-5 favorite.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He ran pretty flat in that race and has one stakes race under his belt where he also finished up the track a distance.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Both races were speeds just below 90, however, his two maiden races were above 90 and he will need to show that form again to be the victor.<\/P> 2.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Corey\u2019s Coffee\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>12-1<\/SPAN><\/P> Corey broke his maiden last time out at 11 furlongs winning by 3 with a speed of 85.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has good late speed and stretching out the distance paid off for him last time.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He adds a furlong for this race which shouldn\u2019t hurt and has some decent pedigree behind him for running routes.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His speeds are a bit lower than others, but have been improving.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Of all the longshots in the race, he\u2019s got the best chance to pull the upset.<\/P> 3.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Sharmadane\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>3-2<\/SPAN><\/P> Sharmadane blew a 5 length lead in the G3 Goodyear Stakes (9f) as he tried to wire the field and settled for second with a speed of 101.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I expect that he will try to run off with the lead again and will find some pressure from Fantasteek who also likes to be on the lead.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He adds 3 flanks for this race and his best chance seems to be if he settles back just off the pace.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He tends to tire when he\u2019s on the lead, but the 101 speed is hard to ignore as it is much the best in this field.<\/P> 4.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Fantasteek\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>2-1<\/SPAN><\/P> Fantasteek looks to be one of two entrants (Sharmadane being the other) who may be looking to set the pace.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He tried to wire the field in the 10f Cephas Stakes and finished 2nd<\/SUP> at 7-2, the longshot in a 4 horse field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He did record a career best speed of 96 and it was run over this track which may work towards his advantage.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Fantasteek will need to find a way to make the speed last the distance.<\/P> 5.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Swede Child O\u2019Mine\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>18-1<\/SPAN><\/P> Swede is 3-2-0 in 5 career starts, which looks impressive.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Taking a closer look, the record was amassed against well placed short fields of horses.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Swede is adding a good 3 furlongs, give or take, to his longest race distance and his best speed to date is an 80.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Although this field is small, it is the largest he has faced, so he has find yet another small field to compete in, but I think the extra distance will work against him and his speed number just aren\u2019t as competitive with others in this race.<\/P> 6.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Divine Minister\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>14-1<\/SPAN><\/P> Divine Minister looks to be in a tough spot in this race.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has one win in 9 starts and has only been on the board twice.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His career best speed is an 81, which is several knocks below the rest of the field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Divine has never gone more than a mile and the extra distance does not look like it will be beneficial to him.<\/P> \u00a0<\/P> \u00a0<\/P> MY PICKS:<\/P> \u00a0<\/P> I’m going on a limb and taking the 12-1 Corey’s Coffee as my top pick.\u00a0 He’s shown improvement and I think the distance fits nicely with him.\u00a0 His speeds aren’t top notch, but he may be able to run down the early speed.<\/P> \u00a0<\/P> Sharmadane has shown nice speed numbers and it’s just a matter of making his speed last.\u00a0 He is fully capable of handling this field and gets top rated jockey aboard as a plus.<\/P> \u00a0<\/P> Fantasteek is the best of the rest and can’t be ruled out.\u00a0 If he can find a way to lay off the early pace, or relax a bit if he can manage to get the lead, he could take this race.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shorter field this year in Italian Derby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"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-8052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052","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\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}