Its just over four months to the highlight of the 2018 Kentucky horse racing season, the Derby is on the 5th May and the Oaks is on the 6th May.
The Anti-post market for the Derby is wide open with Bolt Doro the current favourite with most bookmakers at 10/1, the double group one winner looked awesome last year but he has suffered a slight setback. Owner-trainer Mick Ruis has reported that Bolt d’Oro’s training schedule was slightly altered after he began showing signs of lameness prior Dec. 31, when he was scheduled for his first workout since the Breeders’ Cup. “All of the sudden, he was a little bit sore on the back end,” Ruis said in the Form. “I had just been jogging him, galloped him, and was getting ready to work him. Then four days before, he was a little crabby in the back.”
US Navy Flag who was the champion two-year-old in Europe is a 20/1 shot to win the race, but its very unlikely that the horse that lead home an Aidan O’Brien trained 1st, 2nd, & 3rd in the G1 Dewhurst Stakes in Newmarket, after already winning the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes in September would take up the engagement. He is as short as 9/1 for the 2000 guineas which look the target for the Irish trained colt.
Caledonia road is the 7/1 favourite for the Kentucky Oaks, She was the shock winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November when winning at 17-1. With two wins and a second in three starts, she has a big shot to win Oaks of trains on as a three-year-old. Its 14/1 bar with Horse racing betting sites so as this stage its a wide-open contest.
Its going to be a great year of racing in Kentucky but as you can see both the big races of the year are wide open and until we see some trail races in April its very hard to place any bets on the event.
