I like him a lot in the big picture, and he could really move up the Derby ladder in my mind with a big effort here,\u201d <\/strong>Demling said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nDeep Field, Plenty of Contenders<\/h2>\n
Hidden Scroll, who drew the seventh gate, is one of 11 entries scheduled to run Saturday. Five of those have already earned points in Derby prep races.<\/p>\n
The top contender of those appears to be Signalman. The Kenny McPeek-trained colt has not finished out of the money in any of his five races, including a third-place run in last year\u2019s Grade I Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile and a win in the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Both of those races took place last November.<\/p>\n
The morning-line odds for Signalman, who will start from the sixth gate, are 9-2.<\/p>\n
Another entrant making his 2019 debut will be Vekoma, trained by George Weaver. He raced twice last fall and won both times, including the Grade III Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct by 1-3\/4 lengths.<\/p>\n
Coming out of the fifth gate, Vekoma\u2019s morning-line odds are 7-2.<\/p>\n
\n
The Fountain of Youth represents the best field of the year to date in the Derby prep campaign, Demling said. \u201cIt\u2019s not even close,\u201d<\/strong> he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we see three or four continue on the Derby trail after this one.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nOpportunities for Value<\/h2>\n
In a deep field, there may be a chance to find a quality horse at higher-than-expected odds.<\/p>\n
One such example could be Code of Honor. The Shug McGaughey-trained horse was the odds-on favorite in his last race — the $100,000 Mucho Macho Man — but he finished fourth. Saturday\u2019s race will be the first time he\u2019ll race around two turns.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would think it would help him,\u201d the Hall of Fame trainer said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait and see, but I\u2019m looking forward to running him two turns.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his other two starts, Code of Honor has a win and a second-place finish. The second-place finish came in Belmont\u2019s Grade I Champagne, where he started dead last because of a tough break out of the gate.<\/p>\n
This time, Code of Honor drew the inside post and starts with odds of 6-1.<\/p>\n
Demling said another horse to keep an eye on is Global Campaign. Like Hidden Scroll, the Stanley Hough-trained colt did not race as a 2-year-old. He has won both of his races this year, but Saturday will be his first graded stakes race.<\/p>\n
Global Campaign will start from the eighth gate, and his morning-line odds are 10-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything over 5-1 and I\u2019d make a nice wager,\u201d Demling said. \u201cThe colt will press the pace and looks like a really nice 3-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year, Justify bucked more than a century of horse racing tradition to go from an unraced 2-year-old to a Kentucky Derby winner. Could we see a repeat in 2019? Saturday may help us find out the answer to that question as a colt making just his second start is the morning-line favorite in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":99726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14577,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Hidden Scroll Gets His First Test in Deeply Competitive Fountain of Youth<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n