By Joe Quillen
Sunland Park Race 9 – Sunland Derby
We stay on the road to the Kentucky Derby, but this time, we head to New Mexico, specifically our first trip to Sunland Park which is right over the state line from El Paso, Texas for the Grade 3 Sunland Derby. We have eight horses headed to the gate for this race that will award 20 points to the winner of this race. Post time for this race is 6:17 pm Eastern time.
There are four horses who ran last time in the Riley Allison Derby, which was a prep for this race today. The 2 Surroundedbyangels (12/1 ML) and the 7 Da Ringo (20/1 ML) were no match last time out for the 6 Alotaluck (6/1 ML) and the 4 Lucky Jeremy (4/1 ML) who were near the front and pulled away from the first two horses mentioned from that race.
The favorite in today’s race is the 5 Stronghold (5/2 morning line) and is back after two months. He finished second to Wynstock in the Los Alamitos Futurity in December and will have a nice trip in this race if he duplicates what he did then. He will be stalking behind the leaders at the start of this race, which I expect to be Surroundedbyangels and Lucky Jeremy.
The 8 Informed Patriot ran well in the Smarty Jones on New Year’s Day at Oaklawn Park and looks like he has had the toughest road so far. I like the superior jock/trainer connection of Joel Rosario and Steve Asmussen here as that should be the intangible I want in my wager here today. Informed Patriot will probably be about two or three lengths behind the leader and pouncing as they turn for home to win the Sunland Derby and the 20 points as a result.
I think Stronghold will get second in front of Alotaluck and Lucky Jeremy. I’ll call this 8-5-6-4 and my play is $20 to win on the 8. Good luck everyone!
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