Why does Saturday put me in a state of excitation? Answer: Because it’s a king-sized day of racing, primarily at Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, all filled with Kentucky Derby preps. An additional reason for my enthusiasm is, for the second year in a row, DK Horse will be sponsoring the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. It’s the 8th Race on the card and carries 50 Derby Qualifying Points. The race has been won by some of the all-time greatest three-year-olds: Medaglia d’Oro, Point Given, Fusaichi Pegasus, California Chrome and more recently Authentic. Out of the last 10 years, a Bob Baffert-trained horse has won the San Felipe five times and of the six horses entered this year, three are trained by Baffert. While all in the short field are contenders, I’m narrowing the winning spot down to Journalism and Barnes.
Both horses are coming out of winning efforts at the Grade 2 level, with Journalism being the only horse to have won at the 1 & 1/16 mile distance.
I’m uncertain if Journalism will be fully cranked up considering he hasn’t run since mid-December and may look at this as a tune-up.
This is how I’ll play the race:
2025 DK Horse San Felipe Stakes Picks
Win & Place – Barnes
Exacta Key – Barnes with Journalism, Rodriguez & Mellencamp
2025 Gotham Stakes Preview & Picks
The Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct is also awarding 50 qualifying points to the winner and promises to put at least one horse into the Derby field. A list of past Gotham champions boasts names like Secretariat, considered by many the greatest racehorse ever and the only to complete the Gotham/Derby Double in 1973. This 10-horse field appears to offer some decent value in the exotics.
Exacta Box – Sacrosanct, Sand Devil, Normandy Coast & Calling Card
2025 Fountain of Youth Stakes Preview & Picks
The Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park will be the third Kentucky Derby prep race of the day awarding 50 qualifying points, and a likely spot in the Derby, to its winner. Five Fountain of Youth winners have gone on to win the Derby including Spectacular Bid (who was also named Horse of the Year, 1979), as well as Thunder Gulch (1995) and Orb (2013).
This 8-horse field is highlighted by major KY Derby contenders, Burnham Square and Sovereignty, both coming off Graded Stakes wins (the only two in the race to have accomplished that so far). Competition comes from the two Todd Pletcher-trained horses, Gate to Wire (posting his best speed figure his first time on Dirt last out & the highest of anyone’s last race) and River Thames (his 94 is the highest speed figure on the page).
Win & Place – Sovereignty
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Johnny Avello is an employee of DraftKings. Personal views on the races and strategies above do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in selecting their horses to wager upon. DraftKings employees may also deploy different strategies than what is recommended above. DraftKings employees do not have access to any non-public information.
