Grade 2 $750,000 West Virginia Derby Odds
by Patricia Woo | Aug 2 2010
Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort will host the
$750,000 Gr. 2 West Virginia Derby on Saturday, Aug. 7. Yawanna Twist, Concord Point and Exhi are among the top contenders for the 1 1/8 mile race.
Unraced since the
2010 Preakness Stakes on May 15, Yawanna Twist may be making his comeback in the West Virginia Derby. Owned by Steel Your Face Stable, Yawanna Twist had a promising run-up to the Triple Crown. He began his 2010 campaign with a allowance race win at Aqueduct on Feb. 7 and then had to settle for runner-up twice: in the Gotham Stakes on Mar. 6 and the Illinois Derby on April 3 – both grade 3 races. Without enough graded stakes earnings to secure a berth to the
Kentucky Derby, the Rick Dutrow Jr.-trained Yawanna Twist entered the second leg of the
Triple Crown. He made a strong bid late in the race but could not sustain it and finished fourth. Hopes are high for this son of Yonaguska, who recently moved from Aqueduct to Saratoga to work out and registered a 6-furlong breeze in 1:14.11 on July 29.
Late-blooming Concord Point has picked the perfect time to come into form. After a fourth-place finish in an allowance race at Santa Anita Park on Feb. 2, he redeemed himself with an allowance race win there on April 14. He switched to a synthetic track for his first try at graded stakes company – the Gr. 3 Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes on May 22 at Hollywood Park – and finished second. The Bob Baffert-trained son of Tapit then shifted to Prairie Meadows and back to dirt where he captured his first graded stakes victory in the Gr. 3 Iowa Derby on June 26 and set a track record at 1 1/16 miles.
Unbeaten in four consecutive starts, Exhi is one of the West Virginia Derby's top contenders. A son of Maria's Mon and trained by Todd Pletcher, Exhi is another late-bloomer rising to the forefront of this year's crop of 3-year-olds. His first victory was in the Rushaway Stakes at Turfway Park in March and was followed by his first graded stakes victory in the Gr. 2 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 17. Without enough graded stakes to take a shot at the Triple Crown, Exhi was pointed next to Woodbine Park where he won the Marine Stakes on May 29 and most recently the Victoria Park Stakes on June 27. Exhi's challenge will be the dirt track at Mountaineer Park – all his wins this year have come on synthetic surfaces.
Others nominated for the West Virginia Derby include grade 2 winners Skipshot and Coffee Boy.
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