Game Winner is now the favorite to win Saturday after Omaha Beach was scratched.
(AP) — The new favorite enters the Kentucky Derby seeking his first win of 2019 and tops several contenders on modest winning streaks that could factor large in the sport’s marquee race.
Game Winner is now the favorite to win Saturday after Omaha Beach was scratched.
He has already won more than $1 million and seeks a bigger payday of $1.86 million along with a garland of roses. He’s among a trio of horses trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who’s chasing a record-tying sixth Derby win and second in a row after Triple Crown winner Justify.
The challenge for each horse in Saturday’s 145th running at Churchill Downs is beating 19 others over 1 1/4 mile in the longest race of their careers. The first quarter-mile figures to be a logjam before things begin shaking out to determine the real contenders.
Some horses that could make the race interesting:
The Bob Baffert-trained colt, now the Derby favorite with Omaha Beach scratched, won last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs to cap a 4-0 campaign as the top 2-year-old with three Grade 1 wins. Game Winner hasn’t won since then but his consecutive seconds as a 3-year-old have been close. He finished a half-length behind Baffert stablemate Roadster in last month’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, a performance that came a just few weeks after he fell a nose short of Omaha Beach in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
