BRAD Cox aims for a fifth Kentucky Derby prep victory this year when he runs Verifying and Giant Mischief in the mile-and-half-a-furlong Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park tonight.

The $1 million race is the richest Derby prep race so far this year, offering points on a 50-20-15-10-5 scale to its top five, and has attracted a field of 11.

Verifying won a Saratoga maiden, finished second in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct and was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland. The Justify colt races for the Coolmore-affiliated partnership of Jonathan Poulin, Westerberg, Susan Magnier, Derrick Smith, and Michael Tabor.

Giant Mischief, an Into Mischief colt, won his first two starts before he was second in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes.

Due to Bob Baffert’s Churchill Downs ban, Reincarnate enters the Rebel without any Derby points and now runs for California-based trainer Tim Yakteen, after he won the mile Sham Stakes at Santa Anita last month.

Steve Asmussen runs three, the outsider Powerful, Red Route One - the Southwest runner-up - and his most fancied Gun Pilot.

HONG Kong champion Golden Sixty came back to his best form with an excellent performance on his last start, beating Romantic Warrior and California Spangle in the mile Group 1 Stewards Cup.

The distance of a mile and two furlongs for tomorrow’s Group 1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup is more of a challenge but as he gets older it may be more suitable and his best form has him up in pole position for an eighth Group 1 win.

Romantic Warrior was hugely impressive in winning December’s Group 1 Hong Kong Cup. He returns to his best distance and the two are expected to fight out the finish again.