West Virginia Derby about to begin at Mountaineer Race Track
West Virginia Derby was inaugurated in 1981. It is a Thoroughbred Grade II race; open for colts aged three and weighing more than 122 pounds. The total distance to be covered is 1 1/8 miles or 9 furlongs over a left- handed dirt track with a purse of $ 750,000 for the winning horse. There are three race tracks which host the West Virginia Derby but the most famous of these is the Mountaineer Race Track.
West Virginia Derby will take place at Mountaineer Race Track this Saturday. Many of the questions related to the Travers scheduled on the 28th of this month can be answered after this particular race. Concord Point when Compared to Tapit has some speed issues. Tapit colt manages up to 1 1/8 miles by successfully navigating dirt and two runs for the first time. He was successful in 1 1/16 mile Iowa Derby Grade III which took place on the 26th of June at Prairie Meadows Racetrack. While Concord Point is given the seventh post out of nine by Jim Barnes who is an assistant to Bob Baffert, the famous trainer working for Kaleem Shah, the owner of Concord Point. He thinks their horse is doing pretty well.
The main question for Exhi, the winner of the Coolmore Lexington Stakes Grade II, is whether he can perform well on dirt. The horse won the Victoria Park Stakes on the 28th of June at Woodbine. It is known that he carried a weight of 120 pounds which is the co-high weight under the race’s allowance policies. He has won four Stakes on the synthetic Polytrack, but has not finished first in any of the three dirt track races that he competed for, before the up-coming West Virginia Derby.
After failing four Stakes, the winner of the Swaps Stakes Grade II, Skipshot, has been sent to Jerry Hollendorfer, who is the trainer of Skin Away. Bwana Bull won Hollendorfer with a second position in the 2007 West Virginia Derby. He is excited for the Derby this year.
The winner of the Iroquois Stakes Grade III 2009 at the Churchill Downs is the also one of the competitors expected on the field. Matt Winn Stakes was won by Sky Mesa on the 15th of May at Churchill. This was the victory that he won to his trainer Steve Downs before he won the second place to Concord Point in the Iowa Derby. In 2007, when Bwana Bull was defeated by a nose by Zanjero, Asmussen won the West Virginia Derby, besides 2 other victories in the same race.
Travers has already had a great amount of speculation and is being considered the most important race of the Saratoga events. The race of $ 1 million will be a competition amongst some of the best racehorses of the country. The winners of the Jim Dandy Stake and the Haskell Invitational Stakes have made their way through the Travers and are set to give a tough time to their competitors. Lookin At Lucky, the winner of the Haskell Invitational Stake is suspected to be out of the Travers on account of his ill health and vigorous doses of the antibiotic penicillin. As per the side effects of the medication, the horse is unfit for running for about three weeks. The runner up to the winner of this Stake, Trappe Shot is now expected to be a part of the Travers even though he was also committed to run the King’s Bishop scheduled on the same day as the Travers. First Dude and Super Saver are also one of the top ranked horses to complete the field of the Travers. West Virginia Derby is one of the most important determinants and steppingstone to the Travers. The nine horses which will run for this race on the 7th of August 2010 are: Nacho Friend, Thiskyhasnolimit, Skipshot, Not Abroad, Exhi , Gunfighter, Concord Point, Shookstown Road, Toh's Grey Cat. Sports analyst and the trainers have recorded their comments and odds and expectations from this particular race in the Daily Racing Form.
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