Saturday’s Virginia Derby day card – the final Virginia Derby (for now, at least) to be conducted on grass – brings us numerous stakes and full fields everywhere you look.

Oh, and maybe, some prices? Let’s see if we can find a few of those.

Why not Desvio in the Virginia Derby?

Start with this: if he wins, you’ll get paid. He two-for-two on the grass, winning an allowance on the Preakness undercard at odds of 38-1 and then scoring in Delaware Park’s Kent Stakes at 9-1. He’s 8-1 here and liable to drift up from there. He was up close to the early pace in the 11-furlong Kent and absolutely nowhere early in the race at Pimlico. He confronted soft turf in the boggy Pimlico allowance and then firm in the Kent.

The one common thread: he kicked in nicely in the lane to win. Others have better figs and higher-end connections, but Fulmineo is the only other turf stakes winner in the bunch. The Madison Meyers trainee retains Ben Curtis in the irons and rates a look here.

Will Call Another Play (re)take to the turf in the Virginia Oaks?

Call Another Play made her career bow at Colonial Downs, running second in a Virginia restricted turf sprint won by the talented Determined Driver. Trainer Mike Trombetta and owner-breeder Larry Johnson then… err… called another play with the daughter of Audible, moving her to the main track and stretching her out. 

That resulted in a three-race win streak, topped by a score in the Weber City Miss, and they then sent her to the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan, in which she finished a very good third (and nearly second) behind Gun Song. She then was beaten two lengths when a troubled fourth in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks behind next out G1 Alabama winner Power Squeeze.

Now she’s back on the turf. Will she take to it? Half-sis Future Is Now is a Grade 2 winner sprinting on the lawn, so the precedent’s there. The morning line favorite here is Kalispera (4-1), who was third in the Grade 3 Pucker Up last out but is an unsightly 0-for-10 on the turf. At double the odds, Call Another Play’s worth a gander.

With a bunch of speed signed on in the Da Hoss, who benefits?

There’s speed all over the place in the 5 ½-furlong Da Hoss, including, it appears from a couple of videos, Isivunguvungu, the South African-based horse racing here for trainer Graham Motion.

Who’s that benefit? 

The chalk, first of all. Dream Shake (7-2) and Nothing Better (4-1), drawn next to each other in posts eight and nine, likely benefit most of all from a pace tussle. They figure to be mowing ‘em down late. The former was up late to win the Van Clief over the strip a month ago, and jockey Ben Curtis will be up for Mike Stidham.

As for Nothing Better, the Jorge Duarte trainee won the Wolf Hill at Monmouth two back and then just missed in that track’s Select, falling a nose short of Smithwick’s Spice. Jorge Ruiz will ride.

If they don’t fire, or run into traffic? Colonial Downs-lover Maya Prince, another Trombetta-Johnson production, ran pretty well in this spot a year ago behind next-out Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals and is perhaps an inch better now than he was then. Horacio Karamanos will ride, and 20-1 is nothing to sneeze at. He’ll be coming at the end.

What about first turfers in the Kitten’s Joy?

The 1 1/16-mile Kitten’s Joy, for two-year-olds, includes several that have never tried the green stuff. In fact, one of those, Good Directions is the 7-2 morning line favorite; he won on the synthetic at first asking and most recently was well beaten in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on the main track at the Spa.

Ready for Peace, a good-looking debut winner going a mile on the turf at Colonial, is the 4-1 second choice and may go favored – if he posts. He’s also entered Sept. 8 at Kentucky Downs. 

Two horses that haven’t yet tried the turf but seem likely to take to it are Siesta Key (6-1) and Just a Fair Shake (5-1).

Trained by Brad Cox, Siesta Key won an off-the-turf maiden special on debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis in a race that’s produced two next out winners. He’s certainly bred to be any kind: he’s by top sire Into Mischief, standing for $250,000. And he’s out of the Doneraile Court mare Cocoa Beach, a Grade 1 winner on both dirt and turf who ran second on the synthetic to the great Zenyatta in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic (now Distaff). Cocoa Beach is a half to four turf winners, including G3 winner Imperia and the Grade 3-placed Lido.

Just a Fair Shake got a big 68 Beyer speed figure when winning on the main track at Laurel Park at first asking. He’s by Laoban, who can get a turf horse, and out of the Midshipman mare Ladymidtown. Ladymidtown was Grade 3-placed on the lawn.

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