Venue for April 13 - Oaklawn + Lexington

[JolyB]

Saturday brings us to the final two stops on the Derby qualification trail, with a number of questions still unanswered.

The Arkansas Derby with its 100 points to the winner is by far the most important, and has drawn a number of serious Derby prospects. Omaha Beach probably needs a 3rd place or better to get into the Derby starting gate. The favorite, Improbable, most likely needs to finish first or second although might get in with a third place. Long Range Toddy is comfortably in already. Country House could squeeze in with a third place finish. All of the others need to finish either first or second.

The Lexington at Keeneland only awards 20 points to the winner, so only two of its entrants have a realistic chance of making the Derby field. A win by either Anothertwistafate or Sueno should get them in. Anything less than tha probably won't do the job unless there are a number of defections.

With all of this intrigue, it makes sense to include both of these races on our contest schedule. The way I'd like to do that without overwhelming either our players or our scorers is to:

start with Race 4 at Oaklawn (the Count Fleet Stakes) and play the Oaklawn card through Race 11 (the Arkansas Derby); then finish up with Race 9 at Keeneland (the Lexington Stakes). I'm sorry to chop things up like that, but it does give us what ought to be a competitive 9 race card and as clear a view of the Derby picture as anyone could have this far in advance.

Anyone want to play this card?