Kentucky Derby Future Wagering Pool 2 starts Friday

Bet on KY DerbyChurchill Downs Handicapper Mike Battaglia has installed “All Others” as a strong even-money morning line favorite among the 24 betting interests in the three-day Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 2 that opens its run at noon (all times Eastern) on Friday, Feb. 6 and concludes on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. Recently-crowned 2014 Eclipse Award 2-year-old champion American Pharoah (#1), along with Dortmund (#5), Upstart (#23), Carpe Diem (#2) and Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Grade I) winner Texas Red (#21), headline the 23 individual betting interests.

The pool is the second KDFW pool leading up to the 2015 Kentucky Derby, following an opening pool conducted Nov. 28-30. “All Others” was the odds-on 3-5 favorite in November’s three-day pool, which attracted total wagering of $234,574. Total betting in the 2014 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, the first to feature four wagering pools, was $1,324,466.

The favored mutuel field includes all 3-year-old Thoroughbreds other than the 23 individual horses listed among the 24 betting interests in KDFW Pool 2.

Zayat Stables LLC’s American Pharoah, honored as the juvenile champion of 2014 after emphatic Grade I wins in the Del Mar Futurity and Santa Anita’s FrontRunner for three-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, is the favored individual horse at 10-1.

Close behind the champion and Pool 2 favorite are Kaleem Shah Inc.’s unbeaten Dortmund, the Baffert-trained winner of the Los Alamitos Futurity (GI), and Ralph M. Evans’ Upstart, an impressive winner of the Holy Bull (GII) at Gulfstream Park for trainer Rick Violette Jr. Those wagering interests are the co-second choices among individual horses at 12-1. Dortmund was the 9-1 individual favorite during last fall’s opening pool of this year’s Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

Just behind that duo at 15-1 is the duo of WinStar Farm LLC and Stonestreet Stables LLC’s Carpe Diem, the Todd Pletcher-trained winner of Keeneland’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (GI) and runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Erich Brehm, Wayne Detmar, Lee Micheals, and Keith Desormeaux et al’s Texas Red, an emphatic winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile who was narrowly beaten in his 2015 debut in Sunday’s San Vicente (GII) at Santa Anita. Texas Red is trained by co-owner Desormeaux and ridden by Kent Desormeaux, the trainer’s three-time Kentucky Derby-winning brother.

Carpe Diem is one of six KDFW Pool 2 individual betting interests trained by Pletcher, who scored his lone Kentucky Derby victory in 2010 with WinStar Farm’s Super Saver. Joining Carpe Diem in Pletcher’s half-dozen are Competitive Edge (#3, 30-1), Daredevil (#4, 30-1), Itsaknockout (#13, 50-1), J S Bach (#14, 30-1) and Khozan (#15, 20-1). The latter, owned by Al Shaqab Racing, is son of Distorted Humor and a half-brother to two-time champion Royal Delta who scored an easy victory in his racing debut on Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park.

Wagering interests for the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool were chosen by Churchill Downs committee that included Racing Secretary Ben Huffman, Senior Director of Communications Darren Rogers, Senior Racing Analyst Jill Byrne, Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager Gary Palmisano and Vice President, Racing Communications John Asher.

Clairenmike

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