PA Derby for Lucky?

[horses4courses]

Seems like Baffert and Pegram may be leaning towards the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept 25th as Lucky's next race.

The horse is due to ship back to Del Mar on Tuesday and, while Baffert has indicated that if he works good again before the Travers, he may yet ship him to Saratoga, the concept of one race leading up to the BC Classic is attractive to the connections.

Can't say I blame them. They will do what's right for the horse.

http://www.drf.com/news/lookin-lucky-headed-home

[point given]

Read the article and seems iffy for the Travers as it would involve another ship cross country , and you kow how those Rockies are for West coasters. OTOH, they did the Haskell / Travers route with Point Given. The timing thing of getting to the BC is what is the key it seems, but I just can't see a top horse like LAL going to the PA Derby though .but that timing thing might sway them as they could ship down to CD early or keep him at Belmont til the BC. I do hope they go Travers though.

[horses4courses]

It was pretty clear from Bob Baffert's post race comments, that he believes
Looking At Lucky is far better on dirt.

It seems safe to rule out the Pacific Classic........

[GaryG]

For a 3yo to win the Pac Classic would have been a nice achievement at one time, but the PC has gone the way of the rest of the SoCal stakes. The Vanity once drew some of the best in the country, now it is Zenyatta beating a bunch of nobodies.

As for the PA Derby.....it is the PA Derby, isn't that enough? It is at Philly bleeping Park.

[bane]

Hard to imagine what has happened in this industry..
Many people prefer to send their hores to Keystone, Waterford, and other less popular tracks than say Del Mar, Belmont and Arlington.

[lamboguy]

It was pretty clear from Bob Baffert's post race comments, that he believes
Looking At Lucky is far better on dirt.

It seems safe to rule out the Pacific Classic........he is not running that horse on synthetic again before the breeders cup. i am surprised he is not leaving the horse in new york with terranova to train on dirt.
but baffert is so good, i am not gonna question what he is doing because he got a great record developing young horses. if he's not the best he is certainly in top 5 even on polly

[castaway01]

For a 3yo to win the Pac Classic would have been a nice achievement at one time, but the PC has gone the way of the rest of the SoCal stakes. The Vanity once drew some of the best in the country, now it is Zenyatta beating a bunch of nobodies.

As for the PA Derby.....it is the PA Derby, isn't that enough? It is at Philly bleeping Park.

It's got a nice purse though, does it not? And some decent horses have won that race over the years.

[horses4courses]

The purse money matters to some extent.
However, I believe the date, and surface, are most important.

It fits perfectly as a BC Classic prep.
Remember, also, that this horse had plenty of racing as a 2yo.
There really is no need to give him 2 more races before the Classic.

They want nothing more than to win at Churchill.
This could be the best way to prepare for that.

[rastajenk]

The Super Derby used to fill that role for late-developing 3yo's. Does it still exist?

[duncan04]

From Baffert's facebook page.

No Travers for Lucky. Woke up with a little Temperature ( 102.) but looks like he is not too sick and is responding well to treatment. Will have to stay on MP for probably another week till blood work looks good. Too bad because we were all starting to think Travers.

[lamboguy]

i wouldn't ship that horse back to california so fast by plane with a fever. i would leave him where he is until he gets better.

[bane]

The Super Derby used to fill that role for late-developing 3yo's. Does it still exist?

I wish they pumped it back up to a million, and set it back to 1 1/4 mile. The Breeders Cup hurt that race bad (and the Gold Cup, Washington International, etc). I don't think it will get Gr. 1 status again until they bump up the purse or switch it back to a 1 1/4, the later not helping because many today don't want to do 2 classic distances back to back.

Plus from what I am told to from horseman in Shreveport is Harrah's has really put the racing product on the back burner.