Favored El Areeb made it three straight stakes wins, and burnished his Kentucky Derby resume, with an easy score in the Withers Stakes today.
What’s on tap: four Midlantic-breds in graded stakes, including two on the Derby trail.
Undefeated sophomore Irish War Cry will tackle champion 2-year-old Classic Empire and graded winner Gunnevara in Saturday’s G2 Holy Bull.
El Areeb, from the Cal Lynch barn, headlines Saturday’s G3 Withers, the next step on his hoped-for road to the Kentucky Derby.
Grade 3 winner El Areeb, based at Laurel Park, is among 15 based in the Free State to join the Triple Crown trail.
Of the more than 400 horses nominated to the Triple Crown, 17 were bred in the mid-Atlantic.
QuickTake: The lawsuit against Ahmed Zayat may be frivolous – but it fits perfectly into the strange and checkered recent history of Triple Crown hopefuls.
How’s the Kentucky Derby point system impacting the Preakness and the Triple Crown? Our latest QuickTake.
Twenty-three horses bred in the mid-Atlantic region, including four stake winners, have been nominated to the Triple Crown.
We loved “brash” Steve Coburn when California Chrome was winning. In defeat, he became a sore loser. That change says more about us than about Coburn.
