Forte wins Florida Derby with Santa Anita's Fort Bragg finishing fifth. Reincarnate's third in Arkansas Derby likely qualifies him for Kentucky Derby.
Another Baffert horse, Harlocap, who was transferred to Steve Asmussen‘s barn, finished ninth in the Arkansas Derby.
Reincarnate is on the right side of the bubble to make the Kentucky Derby field with 45 points. It’s highly unlikely that Fort Bragg will make the starting field of 20 with only 15 points. Harlocap didn’t acquire any Derby points.There are two schools of thought if Saturday’s win by Forte was an indicator for how the colt will do in Louisville. Fourteen horses who won the Florida Derby went on to win at Churchill Downs.
The Florida Derby set up with Fort Bragg going to the lead and holding it until the top of the stretch when the field started to get crowded. Forte looked beaten at that point as Mage moved to the front. Then, under a confident ride by Irad Ortiz, Jr., Forte started to get faster and passed the leader with about 30 yards left to the wire.
“I was worried, he had a lot of running to do turning for home,’’ Forte’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, said. “He had to angle out really wide and kind of got a wide trip all the way around. … It looked like he had work to do still at the eighth pole but then he really kicked it in the last part and found his best stride in the last sixteenth” of a mile.Making the win even more impressive was that Forte broke from the 11th gate in the 1 1/8-mile race, which made for a very short run to the first turn.
Angel of Empire won the Arkansas Derby for trainer Brad Cox and jockey Flavien Prat. Hopper , a 4-year-old not eligible for the Kentucky Derby, won the Oaklawn Mile for Baffert.
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