John Battaglia, Two Foreign Races Top Derby Prep Action

The Feb. 14 Risen Star Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots showcased a bona fide Kentucky Derby (G1) contender in Paladin, whose relentless drive to reel in free-running leader Chip Honcho sent the former into first of the Derby Dozen rankings and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Top 3-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll. Do not expect that sort of poll-ascending activity this weekend. The Road to the Kentucky Derby series offers just three minor preps spread across the globe before the competition gets far more serious next weekend with the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park, the Gotham Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack, and the Rebel Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park. Still, qualifying points are on deck Feb. 20-22 across three continents, and for the competitors, these softer spots present opportunity. In Northern Kentucky, the Churchill Downs Inc.-owned Turfway Park stages a minor points race Feb. 21 with the $175,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over the Tapeta main track. The race awards points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale while serving as a prep for the $777,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) March 21. The Battaglia offers a deep, contentious field, but, as is typical of a stakes race on all-weather footing, many entrants arrive with turf form. Surface preferences vary from horse to horse, but grass runners historically adapt more readily to all-weather surfaces than established dirt specialists do. That dynamic often shapes the trajectory of Battaglia participants, many of whom ultimately prove more effective in turf stakes later in the season than at 1 1/4 miles on dirt at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. Rich Strike was the obvious exception, running fourth in the 2022 Battaglia and later third in the Jeff Ruby before shocking at 80-1 odds in the Run for the Roses. Few saw that coming. Participants from the Jeff Ruby, a superior race to the John Battaglia, have fared better in the Derby. Animal Kingdom won the Jeff Ruby, then known as the Spiral Stakes, in 2011, and last year's winner, Final Gambit, was a late-running fourth in the first leg of the Triple Crown. Lil E. Tee won in 1992 when Turfway had a dirt track. Midway Racing's Street Beast and Gold Square's Two Out Hero, both stakes winners on turf and previously competitive in grade 1s on that surface, are the established class of the Battaglia. Both have also won on Tapeta, with Street Beast defeating John Battaglia returnee Fulleffort in the Jan. 17 Leonatus Stakes at Turfway and Two Out Hero scoring on debut over Woodbine's Tapeta surface last summer. Ben Colebrook trains the rail-drawn Street Beast, who also took the $1 million Juvenile Mile Stakes at Kentucky Downs in 2025, while Kevin Attard conditions comebacking Two Out Hero, who ships to Turfway after training at Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida this winter. The latter finished third last out in the Sept. 13 Summer Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine, which followed a second-out win in the Soaring Free Stakes, a grass turf sprint there. He is scheduled to start from post 12, putting him at risk of a wide trip. Neither 3-year-old has raced beyond a mile. Along with Leonatus runner-up Fulleffort, grass stakes winners Attfield and Aces Honor are other threats in the Battaglia, run as the ninth race Saturday at Turfway at 9:55 p.m. ET. Trainer Tom Morley said Attfield is ready to run after compiling a 2-0-1 record in three starts last year on grass in New York. "Do I think this is a Derby horse? No, I don't think he'll get 10 furlongs, but that's something to worry about down the line," Morley said in remarks in Churchill Downs' Derby Dispatch. "He's ready to get his year started." Trade Winds Farm's Stop the Car, who won his first two races on dirt in Kentucky before disappointing with a seventh-place finish in the Jan. 17 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course, is the only horse in the race with dirt success. The son of Maximum Security has trained swiftly in Louisiana since the Lecomte for trainer Brendan Walsh, hinting that a better effort could be forthcoming if he handles the all-weather surface. "He always worked good on the track at Turfway when he was up there (training) last year. We're hoping this might just change things up," Walsh said in the Derby Dispatch. A day before the Battaglia, the Euro/Mideast branch of the Road to the Kentucky Derby Series continues Friday at Meydan Racecourse on dirt with the Dubai Road to the Kentucky Derby Stakes at 1,900 meters (about 1 3/16 miles). The race, also worth 20-10-6-4-2, unfolds without the Bhupat Seemar-trained Six Speed, the blowout winner of the Jan. 23 UAE Two Thousand Guineas (G3). His connections have elected to wait to run him in the higher-reward March 28 UAE Derby (G2), a race whose points structure essentially guarantees a Kentucky Derby starting gate berth for the winner. The 2-3 finishers from the Guineas also bypass Friday's race at Meydan. The Dubai-based Seemar, whose 2022 Kentucky Derby runner Summer Is Tomorrow set the pace before fading to last, still holds a strong hand in the race with multiple entrants, led by Salloom, a Machmer Hall-bred son of Authentic who delivered a decisive performance on debut at a mile in late January for owners King Abdullah Bin Al Aziz and sons. On Sunday, the Road to the Kentucky Derby makes a stop in Japan with the 1-mile Hyacinth Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse, where points are distributed on a 30-15-9-6-3 basis to the top five finishers. As in Dubai, the division's leading point earners bypass this edition, creating an opportunity for Koichi Nishikawa's Arcadia Cafe, a son of Into Mischief trained by Noriyuki Hori. He has 3 points on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby to sit in third place in the Japanese standings, having earned those points when third in the Nov. 29 Cattleya Stakes at a mile. That followed a mile maiden win in the slop and a second-place finish on debut in a 7-furlong sprint. All of his races came last year at Tokyo Racecourse. Other Triple Crown-nominated 3-year-olds in the Hyacinth include Itterasshai (JPN), Lucky Kid (JPN), and Seize the Throne (JPN).