Louisiana Derby : 100-40-30-20-10

The 2023 Louisiana Derby field brings a lot of talented familiar faces to the dirt this year. Despite the amount of talent in this year’s field, the Louisiana Derby has only produced 2 Derby Winners in its entire history. The boys @ Decadent & Depraved have talked about almost every horse in this field extensively, so if you’ve been following along you should know exactly how we feel about these colts.

Instant Coffee rolls into the race off a 2-month layoff as the Morning Line Favorite at 2/1 in this 12-horse field. Other favorites in the race include Sun Thunder (Kenny McPeak, ML 5/1) and Kingsbarns (Todd Pletcher, ML 6/1) who come in off impressive runs in their last race out. This field is extremely intriguing and I think Instant Coffee is rightfully the favorite based off his most recent performance. Despite those short odds, don’t be fooled into thinking some of these other horses don’t have a shot. This race could prove to be a bettor’s dream if one of these longshots comes home at a price.

I’m going to be fully transparent here when I say I don’t have a lot of familiarity with any of the horses in this race. Despite that being the case, when you see a $1,000,000 purse attached to a race you’ve got no choice but to pay attention. At the time of this writing, morning line odds aren’t out, but it looks to be a contest between two horses for that title. #4 Cairo and #7 Go Soldier Go both come off impressive wins last time out, and there’s a lot of chatter in particular about the Aidan O’Brien trained Cairo.

Only a couple of American shippers are headed to run in this race at Meydan Racecourse. #2 Ah Jeez & #12 Tall Boy ship over for Doug O’Neill & #13 Worcester ships for Derby ineligible Bob Baffert. Be on the lookout for #2 Ah Jeez who started his career on turf and has adapted nicely to the dirt here. Tyler Gaffalione aboard provides a bit of a confidence boost in my opinion & will have this horse running his best.

Back to Turfway Park we go, as 12 runners look to score 100 points toward the Derby on the all-weather track. While I don’t think we will see this years Derby winner in this race, I do think there is a good betting opportunity in this race. Heavy morning line favorite in this spot at 2-1 is Major Dude out of the Todd Pletcher Barn. One of the more surprising things about this race is the fact that Irad Otrtiz Jr.makes the trip to Turfway to ride, which is something I never thought that I would say. Major Dude comes in off a win in the G III Kittens Joy at Gulfstream and looks to gain 100 points toward the KY Derby. This horse should be the favorite based on class alone here, but there are some other intriguing runners in this spot.

On the top of that list for me personally is #2 Scooby Quando. Despite finishing second against weaker competition last time out in the John Battaglia at Turfway, I think this horse will improve on his last performance and come closing late. Also, in the field is the winner of the aforementioned John Battaglia, is #8 Congruent. At Morning Line 5/1 it will be interesting to see if this horse can replicate a similar performance and come home with the win.

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