Circular Quay Favorite for Louisiana Derby

Posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Circular Quay was made the 9-5 favorite for the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds, and drew the inside post in a field of eight 3-year-olds entered Monday.

A major Kentucky Derby prep race, the 1 1-16th-mile Louisiana Derby is one five stakes on a Saturday program worth $2.1 million — the state’s richest day of racing. The race was canceled last year because of Hurricane Katrina.

Liquidity was the 7-2 second choice, and drew the No. 5 post. Also entered in the $600,000 race were Imawildandcrazyguy and Zanjero, the second- and third-place finishers in the Risen Star on Feb. 10.

The rest of the field includes Birdbirdistheword, Ketchikan, Slew’s Tizzy and Soaring By.

Circular Quay, winner of the Hopeful and runner-up to Street Sense in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, nearly fell in the stretch before finishing fifth behind Notional in the Risen Star in his 3-year-old debut. Liquidity was beaten a length by Ravel in Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 3.

In the Risen Star, Circular Quay and jockey John Velazquez made a move in the stretch when Slew’s Tizzy clipped heels with another horse, stumbled badly in front of Circular Quay and lost rider James Graham.

Circular Quay dropped back to 10th but finished strong.Slew’s Tizzy never fell, and will try again Saturday — this time with a new rider in Julien Leparoux.

Circular Quay and Soaring By are trained by Todd Pletcher, who has several other top Derby contenders.
tags: , , , Horse Racing Triple Crown

"Circular Quay Favorite for Louisiana Derby" was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am and is filed under Fair Grounds, Horses, Kentucky Derby, Stakes Races, Trainers, Triple Crown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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