The El Camino Real is the Northern Californiaās official Kentucky Derby prep race but will once again have a field dominated by a Southern California presence.
The race is set for Saturday and is the 8th race on the GGF card. Post time for the race which offers Derby prep points on a 10-4-2-1 scale is 4:37 p.m.
Nine horses are set to go to post in the 1-1/8 mile test over the Golden Gate Fields main track. Of the nine, six will be making the trip north from Southern California.
Rombauer (Mike McCarthy/Kyle Frey/8-5) is your morning line favorite. The horse was entered in the Robert Lewis at Santa Anita but scratched to come up here. When last seen in a race he was fifth in the Breedersā Cup Juvenile in early November at 26-1. It was the second Grade 1 in a row for the horse, as he finished second in the Grade I American Pharoah at Santa Anita in September. The lone win in four career starts came in a straight maiden race in July at Del Mar. The last two works before shipping north were strong, including a bullet work February 6.
Javanica (Eoin Harty/Frank Alvarado/5-2) is the second choice and comes in here off a pair of turf efforts in Southern California. His last start was a second in a minor stake at Santa Anita in late December, while the one before was a hard-closing second in the Grade III Jimmy Durante at Del Mar in late November. History has shown that horses coming off turf races down south translate well to the synthetic surface at Golden Gate Fields.
Petruchio (Richard Mandella/Irving Orozco/3-1) was third in the Grade II Los Alamitos Futurity in mid-December at 6-1. He never really threatened that day was 5-lengths back of the winner. The work tab has shown average works for the return.
Waspirant (John Shirreffs/Assael Espinoza/8-1) is the last single-digit morning line horse, and like the other favorites is an invader from the south. He has one win in four starts and three, 4th place finishes, including a 19-plus length drubbing in the Sham at Santa Anita on January 2. Three mediocre works have since followed.
The top two Northern California horses are Itās My House (Jamey Thomas/William Antongeorgi III/20-1) and Tesoro (O.J. Jauregui/Catalino Garcia/20-1).
Itās My House is coming off a straight-maiden score at GGF at the end of January at 6 furlongs and will be going two turns for the first time. Tesoro crossed the line first in his debut January 24 but was disqualified and placed 5th and last in the field. Heās come back and fired a bullet work last week.