It's a little more than a month from the year's championship races for thoroughbreds, more affectionately known as the Breeders' Cup.
The top 2-year-olds in the country will go to post that day and the 2014 Kentucky Derby favorite will be established. Already, John Avello, who posts odds for Wynn Las Vegas on sports and horse racing, is preparing his list and more than likely will be the first on the scene with future book odds on next year's Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs.
Avello told the Daily Racing Form that he will make three horses the favorites in his winter book and because the Derby is still eight months away, those top horses will be listed at 40-1 to 50-1 odds. His top trio includes Strong Mandate, Grand Arrival and Honor Code.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas conditions Strong Mandate and recently sent him out to a 10-length win in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga in upstate New York. Lukas, who is a mainstay at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., will likely send this colt to the Spa next spring and run in the Southwest Stakes, Rebel and Arkansas Derby series, much as Lucas did with Oxbow and Will Take Charge, a couple of the top 3-year-olds this year.
Oaklawn also announced its 2014 first condition book for horsemen on Thursday, and for the sixth year in a row, the overnight purses have grown. Maidens will race for $55,000 purses among the special weights and allowance horses at $56,000. That's up from $53,000 and $54,000 in 2013.
The bottom purse at Oaklawn has risen to $17,000 from $15,500.
Nineteen of Oaklawn's 31 stakes race purses were increased, including five that went to $100,000 from $60,000. Six figures is Oaklawn's new bottom price for open stakes company.
"We continually buck national trends by having a stakes program that gets better and better every year," David Longinotti, Oaklawn's director of racing, said. "There's no better testament to a racing program than to see your horses and horsemen excel at other tracks, and this has been an exceptional year starting with Oxbow's victory in the Preakness and more recently, success for Oaklawn stakes winners Will Take Charge in the Travers and Justin Phillip."
Jan. 10 is opening day at Oaklawn.
Tulsa oilman John C. Oxley entered Delightful Magic (7-2) in Saturday's seventh race among allowance horses at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old filly has won two of her past three starts and $134,637 lifetime. Mark Casse trains and Shaun Bridgmohan rides.
The feature race Saturday at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore is the $13,500 Dash For Colors Stakes. BV Judys Teller has been made the 5-2 morning line favorite. This 2-year-old gelding by Teller Cartel is coming off a stakes victory at Fair Meadows in Tulsa this summer. The horse is trained by Eddie Willis and will be ridden by Dennis Means, who was aboard for the win in Tulsa.
Prominent Tulsa defense attorney Clark Brewster, has a horse entered at Remington Park in Oklahoma City on Saturday, Splendiferous, in the second race, a $25,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds-and-up going 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf. Brewster has had a hot summer with his barn, winning some excellent races at Saratoga in New York.
Splendiferous is listed at 3-1 odds, but is a strong pick to win in the Daily Racing Form with 17 of 23 votes by that publication's handicappers.
Richard Linihan is marketing director at Fair Meadows in Tulsa
Original Print Headline: Breeders' opens Derby season
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