Shapiro’s Selections for the Iroquois

My Sixth Sense (c) Ellis Park/Coady Photography

by Scott Shapiro

The Road to the Kentucky Derby gets started on Saturday as the Iroquois (G3) is slated as the 10TH race on a strong 11-race card at legendary Churchill Downs.

The first of 35 scoring events leading up to the big race on the first Saturday in May drew a full field of 12 colts led by 2-1 morning-line favorite Tight Ten (#4). The Winchell Thoroughbreds colt was green, but impressive, in his debut over this racetrack in late August, and then missed by just a length in his first try versus winners in the Saratoga Special (G2). The Steve Asmussen trainee is certainly as talented as anyone in this group, but he still is figuring out the mental part of the game, making him a somewhat risky proposition as the chalk. I will try to beat him.

Asmussen also sends out 6-1-co-second choice Tobacco Road (#6). The son of Quality Road did not factor in the outcome in his debut over this surface, but won two races at Ellis Park this summer, including an off-the-pace victory on August 19 in the Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes. It is possible that the L and N Racing colt enjoys the increase in distance, but he is another horse I am willing to let beat me in this 1 1/16-mile event on Saturday afternoon.