Epicenter, Call Me Midnight Rematch in Louisiana Derby

The stakes grow higher on the Road to the Kentucky Derby March 26 when Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots hosts the $1 million Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2). Along with the UAE Derby (G2) at Meydan the same day, the two races kick off the crucial final round of 170-point Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) qualifiers.

Already with enough points to safely secure entry into the Derby is Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter , who has 64 points, 50 of those from winning the Feb. 19 Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2) at Fair Grounds. The Steve Asmussen-trained 3-year-old son of Not This Time   is the Louisiana Derby morning-line favorite at 7-5 odds under Joel Rosario.

"Epicenter is coming to the race exactly how we were hoping for," Asmussen said. "He's an extremely durable and talented horse that is showing incremental improvement. I think we are headed in the right direction and couldn't be any more excited about where we are."

The Louisiana Derby offers qualifying points on a 100-40-20-10 scale to its top four finishers.

One entrant in the nine-horse Louisiana Derby has already defeated Epicenter—Peter Cantrell's Call Me Midnight , who rallied to catch a fast pace-setting Epicenter by a nose in the Jan. 22 Lecomte Stakes (G3). His trainer, Keith Desormeaux, chose to skip the Risen Star with his colt to leave him fresh for the Louisiana Derby and without as taxing a race schedule leading into the Triple Crown.

Call Me Midnight is 6-1 on the morning line, co-third choice with Lucky Seven Stable's Rattle N Roll , last year's Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) winner. Sumaya U.S. Stable's Pioneer of Medina , fourth in the Risen Star for trainer Todd Pletcher, is the 5-1 second choice.

Zozos , Kupuna , and Galt  are next at 8-1 followed by 30-1 Curly Tail  and 50-1 Silent Power .

Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch's Kapuna comes off a runner-up finish for trainer Bret Calhoun in a first-level allowance optional claiming race at Fair Grounds on the undercard of the Risen Star. He finished three lengths behind Cyberknife , who sits out the Louisiana Derby to await the April 2 Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park.

Cyberknife's trainer, Brad Cox, instead runs Barri and Joni Butzow's Zozos. Following a debut victory at Fair Grounds, Zozos improved to 2-for-2 in taking a Feb. 11 allowance optional claiming race at Oaklawn by 10 1/4 lengths.

Calhoun, who won the 2018 Louisiana Derby with By My Standards  , calls Kapuna, a son of Hard Spun  , an improving 3-year-old. The colt has a win, two seconds, and a third in four starts with earnings of $97,400. He has not yet competed into a stakes race.

"Well, we don't have the resume some of these horses in here have," he said. "But like I say, I think he's on the improve, and I think he's taking some big steps forward even since that (last) race."

The Eclipse Award-winning trainer the past two years, Cox is also a prior Louisiana Derby winner, having taken the 2020 edition with Wells Bayou  under Florent Geroux, who is also in the saddle on Zozos.

In reference to Zozos, a son of Munnings  , assistant trainer Ricky Gianinni said the Cox team felt the colt was "a nice horse early on" and "obviously winning by 10-plus lengths gave him the right to run in this spot."

Florent Geroux, who piloted Wells Bayou to victory in the 2020 Louisiana Derby and Gun Runner   in 2016 for Asmussen, returns aboard Zozos.

Asmussen is a three-time Louisiana Derby winner; Pletcher has won the race four times.

Just two winners of the Louisiana Derby have gone on to score in the Kentucky Derby: Black Gold in 1924, and Grindstone in 1996. Three others, Funny Cide , Country House  , and Mandaloun , triumphed in the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs after losses in the Louisiana Derby. Both Country House and Mandaloun won by disqualification.

Last year's Louisiana Derby victor, Hot Rod Charlie , didn't race in the six weeks between the Louisiana and Kentucky Derby, nor did Mandaloun , who ran sixth in the Louisiana Derby. Respectively third and second under the wire in the Kentucky Derby behind Medina Spirit, they were each moved up a position after Kentucky stewards disqualified Medina Spirit last month for a medication violation.

Rosario rode Hot Rod Charlie to his Louisiana Derby victory last year for trainer Doug O'Neill.

Both Rattle N Roll and Galt head to Fair Grounds by way of Florida, where they ran in the March 5 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park. Rattle N Roll finished sixth in his season debut, a race trainer Kenny McPeek said the comebacking colt needed to further his fitness, while Galt fell after a spill on the second turn. He escaped injury.

Run at 1 3/16 miles, the Louisiana Derby is the longest domestic prep on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The race is among eight stakes, four graded, March 26 at Fair Grounds.