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Practical Move leads 9-horse field for Santa Anita Derby

April 6, 2023

At approximately 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, nine 3-year-olds will load into the Santa Anita starting gate and take a shot at securing a spot in the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl of thoroughbred horse racing.

Practical Move, who has won two consecutive stakes races in impressive efforts while also earning enough qualifying points (60) for America’s most famous horse race, will retain the services of jockey Ramon Vazquez.

A son of Practical Joke, Practical Move has won three of six lifetime races and been visually impressive in his past two – the Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 17 and the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 4.

Practical Move is one of two sophomores in the race trained by Tim Yakteen. He inherited National Treasure when owners transferred some of their top 3-year-olds from Bob Baffert’s barn to Yakteen in order to have the opportunity to earn Derby qualifying points. Baffert was ineligible to run horses at Churchill Downs last year and this year after Medina Spirit was disqualified from his Derby victory in 2021.

He’s one of four in the race who appear, on paper, capable of winning Santa Anita’s 86th edition of the track’s premiere $750,000 Grade I race and going on to enjoy success further down the line in Louisville.

A quick look at the other three:

• National Treasure introduced himself to the racing world with a 1½-length victory in a Santa Anita maiden special weight on Sept. 3. The third-place finisher in that race? Practical Move. Since then, National Treasure has been the ultimate tease, finishing second once and third two times. Perhaps his most impressive outing was last fall’s Breeders’ Cup when he ran a strong third in the Juvenile behind Forte and Cave Rock.

• Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, looking for the first Kentucky Derby victory of his career, will saddle Geaux Rocket Ride and retains the services of Flavien Prat. The son of Candy Ride won his maiden debut by 5¾ lengths on Jan. 23 at Santa Anita and followed that with a second-place finish in the San Felipe behind Practical Move. Prat, of course, won the 2019 Kentucky Derby aboard longshot Country House when the winner, Maximum Security, was disqualified and placed last because of interference.

• Trainer John Shirreffs has won lots of big races, most notably with 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, but a victory Saturday most likely would be his biggest victory since any of his non-Zenyatta scores. It took the Curlin colt four times to find the winner’s circle, but he ran an impressive third in the San Felipe and could continue his winning ways with further improvement Saturday. Victor Espinoza gets the call.

The first post is Saturday is noon. A total of 200 Kentucky Derby qualifying points will be at stake: 100 will be awarded to the winner, with 40, 30, 20 and 10 points going to the remaining top five finishers.

Orange County Register

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Practical Move leads 9-horse field for Santa Anita Derby

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