Irish War Cry moves into Kentucky Derby Picture

Posted On 06 Feb 2017

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview—-

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion and Eclipse Award winner Classic Empire started his 3-year-old campaign very impressively finishing a dull third in the Grade 2 Holy Bull on Feb. 4 at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

The son of Pioneer of the Nile was making his first start since the first of November and he probably didn’t have all the screws tighten down, but he still should have handled the field he was facing.
The winner of the Holy Bull was Irish War Cry and he picked up 10 points for his effort and now sits eighth on the 2017 Kentucky Derby points list. Gunnevera, the Delta Jackpot winner, was second and received four points and he is now in fourth on the list. Classic Empire picked up two points and still is on top of the list. Talk Logistic picked up one point and is nowhere near the top 20.

El Areeb continued his winning ways in New York by taking the Grade 3 Withers, also on Feb. 4, by open lengths and he looks to be the best that the inner-track season at Aqueduct has to offer. With his 10 points, he moved into second on the list. True Timber was second and got four points to put him on the list at number 16. J Boys Echo was third and Bonus Points was fourth.

The last Feb. 4 race was the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita Park on the “Left Coast” drew only five colts and Royal Mo proved to be the best of this lot and his 10-point victory places him at 13 on the points list. Irap picked up 4 points for second and he sits at 14 on the list. Sheer Flattery was third in the Lewis and Term of Art checked in fourth.

The next points’ race will be the Sam F. Davis on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida. The Davis is new this year to the points’ system.

From now on I’m only going to list the top 20 colts in points’ order. The full list can be found at the Churchill Downs web site.

Classic Empire, 32 points
El Areeb 20
Gormley 20
Gunnevera 14
Practical Joke 14
Uncontested 11
Lookin At Lee 10
Irish War Cry 10
Mastery 10
Mo Town 10
McCraken 10
Guest Suite 10
Royal Mo 10
Irap 8
Wild Shot 6
True Timber 6
No Dozing 5
Bonus Points 5
Klimt 4
Hot Sean 4