Derby Trail: Picture coming into focus * The Racing Biz

Derby Trail: Picture coming into focus

The Biz
April 13, 2025

The Kentucky Derby prep season came to its conclusion Saturday with Keeneland’s Grade 3, $400,000 Lexington Stakes.

The 1 1/16-mile fixture brought together a relatively lightly accomplished field of seven after a pair of scratches, and 4-1 Gosger stalked the pace from third before powering to a two-length win over longtime pacesetter Bracket Buster (25-1).

Neither the winner nor the runner-up is headed to Louisville. “Absolutely not,” is how Gosger’s trainer, Brendan Walsh, put it afterwards.

Both, however, are under consideration for the May 17 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

Here’s how the Kentucky Derby picture looks at the moment:

Rank	Horse	Points	Trainer
1	Burnham Square	130	Ian Wilkes
2	Sandman	129	Mark Casse
3	Journalism	122.5	Michael McCarthy
4	Rodriguez	121.25	Bob Baffert
5	Tiztastic	119	Steve Asmussen
6	Sovereignty	110	Bill Mott
7	Tappan Street	110	Brad Cox
8	Final Gambit	100	Brad Cox
9	Coal Battle	95	Lonnie Briley
10	Chunk of Gold	75	Ethan West
11	Citizen Bull	71.25	Bob Baffert
12	Publisher	60	Steve Asmussen
13	East Avenue	60	Brendan Walsh
14	American Promise	55	D. Wayne Lukas
15	Flying Mohawk	50	Whit Beckman
16	Grande	50	Todd Pletcher
17	River Thames	50	Todd Pletcher
18	Madaket Road	46	Bob Baffert
19	Built	45	Wayne Catalano
20	Neoequos	40	Saffie Joseph, Jr.
21	Render Judgment	39	Ken McPeek
22	Baeza	37.5	John Shirreffs
Auto	Admire Daytona		Yukihiro Kato
Auto	Luxor Cafe		Noriyuki Hori

NOTES: Admire Daytona and Luxor Cafe are automatic qualifiers through the Europe/Middle East and Japan roads to the Kentucky Derby… Render Judgment is unlikely to run in the Derby… Final Gambit, Publisher, River Thames, and Built are under Derby consideration… The others are considered to be pointing to the Derby if all goes according to plan…