Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red began his 3-year-old campaign Sunday with a runner-up finish to Lord Nelson in Santa Anita’s $200,000 San Vicente Stakes.<\/p>\n
The San Vicente did not offer any points as part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points system, but the seven-furlong stakes serves as a prep for the Santa Anita Derby on April 4.<\/p>\n
Lord Nelson, also making his 2015 debut, defeated the 2-5 favorite by a neck and covered the seven furlongs in 1:22.15.<\/p>\n
“I had a perfect trip. He broke a little slow but then he took off and I was able to find position right away,” said winning jockey Rafael Bejarano. “I let him go once we were clear and I knew at the five-eighths pole. Texas Red was the horse to beat and I was waiting for him. When he came to us I let him (Lord Nelson) go and my horse took off again.”<\/p>\n
Texas Red will make his next start in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds, Feb. 21 at 1 1\/16 miles followed by the Santa Anita Derby at 1 1\/8 miles.<\/p>\n
Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs was the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes which again offered no points. Ocean Knight, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., defeated pacesetter Divining Rod by a neck in the 1 1\/16-mile race.<\/p>\n
“I had ridden (Ocean Knight) before so I knew he would wait until I asked him. We were good from the gate,” Ortiz noted, “and I was able to get position just outside the lead group. When I asked for run he just went after the horse on the lead like a good horse should. I really hope I get to ride him back in those big races coming up.”<\/p>\n
The $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby is March 7 and offers 50 points to the winner.<\/p>\n
El Kabeir and International Star are tied with 21 points followed by Upstart (16), Carpe Diem (14), Texas Red (12), Mr. Z (12), Far Right (12), Ocho Ocho Ocho (10), American Pharoah (10), Daredevil (10), Dortmund (10) and Lucky Player (10).<\/p>\n
Coming up on Saturday are a pair of 1 1\/16-mile stakes with 10 points going to the winners. At Aqueduct will be the Withers and at Santa Anita will be the Robert B. Lewis Stakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red began his 3-year-old campaign Sunday with a runner-up finish to Lord Nelson in Santa Anita’s $200,000 San Vicente Stakes. The San Vicente did not offer any points as part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points system, but the seven-furlong stakes serves as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}