Loading ...Feb 15 2016
Southwest Stakes G3 Feb.15 2016 Featuring Collected and Discreetness
Monday, February 15
Oaklawn Park
Hot Springs, AR
A field of 14, including 2 coupled entries, will try to get ahead on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard today in the Southwest Stakes G3. Some are making their first start of the year.
Collected (City Zip) won the Sham G3 at Santa Anita last month, with very little competition other than Let’s Meet In Rio trying to chase him down. Bob Baffert trains both horses. Collected ended up with odds of 50-1 in the Kentucky Derby Futures Pool yesterday, and will have the inside track today.
Sham winner Collected
Benoit Photo
Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) starts just outside of Collected, and ended up with Derby odds of 81-1. The horse finished 14 lengths back in the Delta Jackpot but rebounded with a sprint OCM win. It’s unclear why he is listed as a single entry in the Futures Pool.
Discreetness (Discreet Cat) was the only other horse in the Southwest listed as a single entry the Futures Pool, and wound up at 72-1. He comes off two straight stakes wins for William Fires, but this will be a huge test for him in only his second graded stakes race.
Some others in the Southwest field were also listed in the Kentucky Derby Futures Pool field, but not as single entries. These would included Z Royal, Cutacorner, Luna De Loco, and Synchrony. These and all others not listed as single entries, went at 5-2 in the pool, and represent the lower odds in this race.
None of them will actually stamp a Kentucky Derby ticket today, since the race is only worth 10 points for the winner, and the Championship Series starting next week will have races worth 50-100 points. Collected and Discreetness each have 10 points already, so a win for either would greatly help their cause.
There are also not 1, not 2, but 4 maiden special weight races for 3yo’s on the card, that will used by trainers to both try to get a win, and also assess how their horses face up to the Southwest competition without actually running against them.
