The North Country Derby gives us a chance to see a top group of three-year old stayers. One of the great things about this race is you have a group of horses who are just coming into their own and are showing the potential to be serious contenders at the longer distances for a long time to come. This also makes it a difficult race to predict, as each horse in the field has limited experience at 10f or longer and they have raced against fields of vastly differing quality. One of these six fine horses will pick up their first graded win today and my guess is it will be the first of many.<\/SPAN> 1 – <\/SPAN><\/B>BOARD OF GOVERNORS(KY) <\/SPAN><\/B>\u2013<\/SPAN><\/B> simsters4 \u2013 8\/5 Sire-Distorted Humor<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt has exploded with huge runs his last two times out and if he can post a similar result as the favorite here in this one, he could be on his way to very big things. After running some solid races (90’s speed figures) from 7-9 furlongs the first half of the year, Board of Gov’s has posted 106 and 111 speed figures at 11f and 10.5f respectively in dominant wins. In both of these outings, he ran on the lead (a change from previous outings) and I’d expect him to go out early and be right there at the finish in this race. 2 – SCATTERED MEMORIES(KY) \u2013 stormboot \u2013 8\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-Awesome Again<\/SPAN><\/I> This one is a bit of a mystery, but will have to run a career race to get the win against today’s field. He has shown well recently against allowance competition, with a 2nd at 10f (96spf), a 1st at 11f (77spf) and a 1st at 12f (82spf). While the speed figures in the wins are unimpressive, both races were open length wins and it is difficult to say just what this horse is capable of in a competitive race. My guess is he’ll be well off the pace early and will attempt to challenge for a spot in the money as they come down the stretch. 3 – SILVERSEEKER(VA) \u2013 silvrmusic \u2013 17\/1<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-Silver Music<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt is the longest shot in the field and it’s hard to see him as a threat for the victory. However, there is a case to be made for him factoring into the trifecta. His career best speed figure of 96 would likely get him close and his last race (a local bred allowance) was an easy 9f win. If he comes in fresh and doesn’t fall too far back before making his patented late charge, he could be passing horses in the stretch. 4 – ADVANCED REPORT(JPN) \u2013 racingfan \u2013 9\/5<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-Admire Moon<\/SPAN><\/I> This colt has spent more time among graded company than any other in the field and has shown he has what it takes to be consistently competitive at this level. His last five efforts have been graded stakes and he’s picked up a 2nd (106spf) in the G2 Princess Cup and a 3rd (97spf) in the G2 Land’s End. If he can match his effort from the Princess, he looks likely to be the strongest of the closers in this field. It’s a near certainty that this very consistent performer will be in the mix coming down the stretch, but whether he’ll reach the lead is the big unknown. 5 –<\/SPAN><\/B> MESCALITO <\/SPAN><\/B>\u2013<\/SPAN><\/B> desjet2 \u2013 4\/1 Sire-Monsun<\/SPAN><\/I> Another colt who is just now coming into his own and may be on the verge of something special. In his last two races, both listed stakes, he won at 12f with a 95spf and 11f with an impressive 106spf. What makes these efforts doubly impressive is that both were open-length wins and give you the feeling that Mescalito is just waiting for a challenge to run even faster. He’ll likely get that challenge in this one and it will be fascinating to see if he gets into a speed duel with the favorite or is able to sit off the pace before making a late move. Hard to see this one not factoring. 6 – I WANT REVENGE(KY) \u2013 pincay \u2013 9\/2<\/SPAN><\/B> Sire-Mineshaft This colt comes in with just one win in 15 career starts, so victory looks unlikely. Crashing the party and getting into the money however, is certainly not out of the question. He has run his best races at distances beyond a mile and a quarter, so the 11f this race requires will not be an issue. His last dirt trip was the 14f G1 Little Rock Stayer against older horses, in which he ran a competitive 7th (99spf) in the full 14-horse field. It would not surprise me at all to see this one passing horses down the stretch to snag a nice chunk of this purse. Good luck to all the connections and a preemptive congratulations to whichever colt picks up its first graded win in this race. Six Colts Battle For First Graded Victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"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-8330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8330","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\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}