Kentucky Derby 2023: Exit of Litigate, Hejazi thins futures pool
Two of the 25 shortest-priced horses in the futures marketwere confirmed by Churchill Downs to be off the Kentucky Derby 2023 trail, leaving 34 choices in Nevada that are shorter than 100-1.
Litigate had been priced in Las Vegas this week at 60-1 atCirca Sports and 35-1 at Caesars Sportsbook. Trainer ToddPletcher confirmed to Horse Racing Nation that the colt suffered a setback in training since he won the Sam F. Davis(G3) on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs. The story first was reported by Daily Racing Form. TheBlame colt owned by Don Little’s Centennial Farms has not had a timed workoutsince Feb. 24, when he was clocked at 50.52 seconds for a half-mile breeze atPalm Beach Downs.
Hejazi, who had been 85-1 at Circa and 70-1 at Caesars, was returnedto his original trainer Bob Baffert. In a text message to HRN,interim trainer Tim Yakteen confirmed DRF’s report of the move to Baffert, who is ineligiblefor this year’s Derby. The $3.55 million Bernardini colt owned by Amr Zedan hashad a mostly disappointing first five races. It took him four tries to breakhis maiden, and then he was fourth nearly two weeks ago in the San Felipe (G3),his first finish off the board.
Both Litigate and Hejazi were shown as scratched from theKentucky Derby leaderboard posted this week by Churchill Downs. Hejazi closed Sundayat 53-1 and Litigate 66-1 in pool 5 of Churchill’s pari-mutuel Kentucky DerbyFuture Wager.
Fountain of Youth (G2) winnerForte held firm Friday as the consensus 3-1 Nevada favorite for the Derby, which will be runin 50 days on May 6 at Churchill Downs. Las Vegas futures from Friday morning are shown here in order of their best prices in bold type:
