THE early Kentucky Derby preps continued last weekend, but with the first three in the betting in a field of five for the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes trained by Bob Baffert, the race just showed that the Eclipse Award winning juvenile Citizen Bull had wintered well.

Baffert will be back in Kentucky for the first time since 2021, when his Medina Spirit was disqualified from victory due to failing a post-race drug test.

Baffert was winning his 13th Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes and his seventh in a row.

He was his usual ebullient self, hailing the performance from Citizen Bull during a postrace TV interview, with “The champ is back”.

Quickly recovering after a nod at the start, the colt outsprinted stablemate Rodriguez to the lead, and he saw off that rival and a bid from Clock Tower down the backstretch. He then showed his class round the bend and up the straight, needing one strike from jockey Martin Garcia to pull away to score by three and three-quarter lengths.

Citizen Bull has four wins and two Grade 1s in his five starts with $1,421,000 already in earnings.

The Into Mischief colt runs in the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stable, Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, Bob Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan.

Gulfstream

In Florida, the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes kicked off the path to the Florida Derby and it was Whitham Thoroughbreds’ home-bred Burnham Square, who took the prize for trainer Ian Wilkes and jockey Edgard Zayas.

In beating the Brad Cox-trained favourite Tappan Street by a length and three-quarters, the Liam’s Map gelding earns 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.

Burnham Square heads next to the March 1st Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes or the March 29th Florida Derby.

A TOTAL of 373 three-year-olds (including some not yet named!) were nominated by connections for the 2025 Triple Crown races at the early nomination stage on January 27th.

The $5 million Kentucky Derby on May 3rd at Churchill Downs kicks off the famous three-race series.

The entries are led by champion two-year-old colt Citizen Bull. Citizen Bull heads the leader board on 60 points, ahead of the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes winner Speed King. It will be the first time Bob Baffert has Derby runners since 2021 and he has 21 entered.

There were four colts trained in Ireland entered, Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners have two colts by Justify; Aftermath (a Curragh maiden winner in September) and Isambard Brunel (Navan maiden winner in October), as well as Mount Kilimanjaro (Siyouni), runner-up to Twain in the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, while the Adrian Murray-trained Hill Road, a US-bred son of Quality Road for Amo Racing, was beaten four and three-quarter lengths in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by the current Derby favourite Citizen Bull. The trainer entries are led by Todd Pletcher, who has 32 horses nominated.

A record 69 Japan-based horses, trained by 33 different conditioners, were nominated. The entries also include the 2024 Grade 1 winners, Chancer McPatrick and East Avenue.