It is a long and rarely-trodden path from Sunbury in south-west London to Louisville, Kentucky, but one of the runners in the 7.10 at Kempton Park this evening will take the first step along the 4,000-mile route when the track stages the Road to the Kentucky Derby Conditions Stakes over a mile.
The race was originally scheduled for last Thursday’s meeting, which was lost to the weather, but has been saved because it carries precious qualification points for the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs in early May. Along with the Patton Stakes at Dundalk on Friday, points will be awarded on a 20-8-4-2 basis to the first four home, while a third qualifying race at Kempton on 30 March, with 30 points to the winner, will decide which European-trained horse will get a guaranteed spot in the field in Kentucky.
Aidan O’Brien’s Mendelssohn, who has a dirt pedigree, is among the entries at Dundalk and is seen as a contender for the Kentucky Derby despite having won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar in November. The name in Wednesday night’s field that is guaranteed to ring a bell with American fans, however, is Jeremy Noseda’s Gronkowski, who is named after 28-year-old Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski, a tight end with the New England Patriots.
Source : theguardian
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