Lexington Could be Derby Steppingstone for Winner

The connections of stakes winners Anothertwistafate and Sueno still have hopes to qualify for the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) as they enter the $200,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (G3) April 13 at Keeneland.

Peter Redekop's Anothertwistafate ranks 24th and Silverton Hill's Sueno is 25th in qualifying points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. The Lexington awards qualifying points to the top four finishers—20-8-4-2—and a win by either would give enough points to either horse to qualify (Anothertwistafate would have 50; Sueno would have 48).

Anothertwistafate enters Saturday's 1 1/16-mile race off a runner-up finish in the Sunland Park Derby (G3) March 24. Before that effort, the son of Scat Daddy won the El Camino Real Derby by seven lengths on the synthetic surface at Golden Gate Fields. 

Trained by Blaine Wright, Anothertwistafate will have the services of jockey Javier Castellano, who won nine races—including four stakes—in the opening four days of the Keeneland spring meet. Anothertwistafate stayed at Sunland Park after the Sunland Park Derby, delivering a bullet half-mile breeze April 4 in :46 4/5.

"We decided the next day to stay because of the quarantine at Golden Gate (for equine herpesvirus-1), and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise," Wright said. "The weather was good there and he worked well the day before we left (for Keeneland) last week."

Road to the Kentucky Derby Points List

Sueno, who is trained by Keith Desormeaux, will look for his first graded stakes score after hitting the board in three straight graded stakes races. The son of Atreides  enters off a third-place finish in the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2). Desormeaux sent out last year's Lexington winner, My Boy Jack, who followed with a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

KRA Stud Farm's Knicks Go (18 Road to the Kentucky Derby points) has finished off the board in his past three starts—all graded stakes—but will try to regain the form that saw him win last year's Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland before finishing second in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill Downs. A win Saturday would put Knicks Go near the Derby points bubble should the connections pursue that opportunity.

Record Qualifying Points Likely Needed to Make Derby

Harvey Wallbanger doesn't have enough points to make this year's Derby field, barring defections, but the late-running son of Congrats  boasts a grade 2 win this season.

In his stakes debut, Harold Lerner, AWC Stables, Scott Akman, and Nehoc Stables' Harvey Wallbanger closed from ninth to win the Fasig-Tipton Holy Bull Stakes (G2) Feb. 2 at Gulfstream Park. But after racing wide in the Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1), he wasn't able to launch a similar rally and finished eighth.

The field also includes Louisiana-bred Shang, who enters off a pair of stakes wins for state-breds; Hawaiian Noises, who won a stakes at Turfway Park March 9; and Zenden, who finished fourth in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2), which has produced Derby hopefuls Tacitus and Win Win Win.

Entries: Stonestreet Lexington S. (G3)

Keeneland, Saturday, April 13, 2019, Race 9

• Grade III
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo
• 5:34 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Shang (LA)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	120	Steven M. Asmussen	10/1
2	2Hawaiian Noises (KY)	John R. Velazquez	118	Wesley A. Ward	10/1
3	3Sueno (KY)	Corey J. Lanerie	118	J. Keith Desormeaux	5/1
4	4Anothertwistafate (KY)	Javier Castellano	120	Blaine D. Wright	2/1
5	5Harvey Wallbanger (KY)	Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.	123	Kenneth G. McPeek	7/2
6	6Chase the Ghost (KY)	Miguel Mena	118	Dallas Stewart	30/1
7	7Knicks Go (MD)	Albin Jimenez	123	Ben Colebrook	15/1
8	8Owendale (KY)	Florent Geroux	118	Brad H. Cox	12/1
9	9Zenden (KY)	Tyler Gaffalione	118	Victor Barboza, Jr.	6/1
10	10Roiland (KY)	James Graham	118	Thomas M. Amoss	15/1