The once-mighty Super Derby long ago attracted some of the leading 3-year-olds in the country, elite horses such as Tiznow, Sunday Silence, and Alysheba.
Those glory days and the race's top-level grade have since passed, but Louisiana Downs' marquee race is back, revived for the first time since 2019. Though the $200,000 ungraded race, contested at 1 1/8 miles on dirt Sept. 2, did not attract any of the top 3-year-old Thoroughbreds, the nation's two leading trainers by earnings, Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen, are represented with mid-tier horses.
Cox runs Promise Me a Ride, a winner of two of four starts and most recently a 6 3/4-length allowance winner at Ellis Park Aug. 4. The 3-year-old son of Mastery races for owners Kueber Racing, Big Easy Racing, and Martin Schwartz and has Tim Thornton in the saddle on the 7-2 morning-line second choice.
Hall of Famer Asmussen starts 9-5 favorite How Did He Do That for owners Judy and Kirk Robison. A dual-stakes winner, he also raced in Kentucky last out, finishing sixth in the Ellis Park Derby Aug. 13. The son of Good Magic won the Iowa Derby earlier this year and the 2022 Zia Park Juvenile. Joel Dominguez is aboard the late runner.
Other threats include last-out winners Machine Gun Man and Big Data. The former has raced this summer at Evangeline Downs and the latter at Gulfstream Park.
Entries: Super Derby Presented by Lip Chip, LLC
Louisiana Downs, Saturday, September 2, 2023, Race 7
- STK
- 1 1/8m
- Dirt
- $200,000
- 3 yo
- 4:53 PM (local)
| PP | Horse | Jockey | Wgt | Trainer | M/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1Machine Gun Man (KY) | Vicente Del-Cid | 124 | Juan C. Sanchez | 6/1 |
| 2 | 2Tiz Donegal (NY) | Thomas L. Pompell | 124 | Dane Noel | 15/1 |
| 3 | 3Donegal Arrow (KY) | Juan P. Vargas | 124 | Dane Noel | 12/1 |
| 4 | 4Big Data (KY) | Emisael Jaramillo | 124 | Michael Lerman | 9/2 |
| 5 | 5How Did He Do That (KY) | Joel Dominguez | 124 | Steven M. Asmussen | 9/5 |
| 6 | 6Promise Me a Ride (KY) | Timothy Thornton | 124 | Brad H. Cox | 7/2 |
| 7 | 7No White Flags (KY) | C.J. McMahon | 124 | Carl J. Woodley | 10/1 |
