Instant Replay has shipped to Louisiana Downs for the $250,000 Super Derby on Saturday largely because of the distance of the richest race of the meet.
“I think the mile and an eighth will play in his favor,” trainer Brad Cox said.
The Super Derby is slotted as the seventh race on an eight-race card that has a special first post of 3:35 p.m. Central. The field of seven includes Mister Omaha, who comes off a third-place finish in the Iowa Derby; He’s Late Again, a winner of three straight stakes; and Fountain Lake, who was fifth in last month’s Curlin at Saratoga. Rolando, a threat to wire the field, is cross-entered in the Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs.
Churchill Downs-based Instant Replay exits the Indiana Derby, a 1 1/16-mile race that has produced two next-out stakes winners in Tip Top Thomas, the winner who came back to take the Smarty Jones at Parx Racing with a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, and Big Truzz, the sixth-place finisher who returned to take the Ellis Park Derby with a Beyer of 100.
Instant Replay finished fifth in the Indiana Derby after breaking from the outside post in a field of seven. He was beaten just three lengths and earned a Beyer of 91.
“He was a little wide throughout, I think he was compromised a little bit by the post,” Cox said. “He ran well. But the track really seemed to be playing toward speed, and with the outside post – even if we could have drawn well – I’m not certain he could have been up front anyhow.
“I thought he put in a really, really good run, just not quite good enough running against the track and that group. And I’m hopeful he can rebound and get back in the win column.”
In April, Instant Replay closed from next to last to win the Bathhouse Row Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Oaklawn Park. One start later, he used stalking tactics to capture the Texas Derby in May at Lone Star Park. Following the Indiana Derby, he was entered in the Smarty Jones.
“We had him in there at Parx and opted to scratch,” Cox said. “We thought it made sense to look at the Super Derby. It was a mile and a sixteenth at Parx.”
Timothy Thornton has the mount from post 3 for Wathnan Racing.
“We’ll break running and kind of let him find his way,” Cox said.
Mister Omaha is another runner aimed at the Super Derby in part because of the 1 1/8-mile distance.
“I like the distance for him,” trainer Joe Offolter said.
Mister Omaha finished third over 1 1/16 miles last out in the Iowa Derby after pushing the pace set by eventual winner Magnitude.
“I thought he ran good – he just kind of hooked a bear,” Offolter said. “We kind of tried to go with Magnitude and we just couldn’t quite go and we came up a little short on the end of trying to go with him.”
Joel Dominguez has the mount on the three-time stakes winner, who will break from post 4.
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