By Courier-Journal.com
CYPRESS, Calif. (Aug. 27, 2014) — The $500,000 Los Alamitos Futurity — the Grade I race formerly known as the Hollywood Futurity and CashCall Futurity until Hollywood Park closed last year — has been added to the points races for the 2015 Kentucky Derby.
The series’ 35 races that offer qualifying points toward running in the May 2 Derby were released Wednesday by Churchill Downs, along with the companion series for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks, which this year will include the Grade I Starlet at Los Alamitos.
This is the third consecutive year that Churchill will use a sliding scale of points awarded to the top four finishers in select races to determine preference for its 20-horse Derby field. At least 20 horses have entered the 1 ¼-mile classic for 3-year-olds every year since 2004, and 14 of the last 16 years.
Points for first place range from 10 to 100, those coming in the major 1 1/8-mile preps three to five weeks before the Derby.
Churchill Downs dropped the last running of the CashCall Futurity from last year’s points series, citing the pending closure of Hollywood Park. The stakes, including its Grade I status, was transferred to and renamed by Los Alamitos, the quarter horse track that added major thoroughbred meets to help Southern California pick up the slack. The 1 1/16-mile stakes, set for Dec. 20, has produced six Kentucky Derby winners.
“The robust commitments by the team at Los Alamitos suggest a strong desire to be included in our series, and we’re confident the race is likely to attract aspiring and compelling Derby prospects,” Churchill Downs track president Kevin Flanery said in a news release. “We’re delighted to welcome the Los Alamitos Futurity to the Kentucky Derby ‘Prep Season.’”
The series begins Sept. 6 with Churchill’s $100,000, Grade III Iroquois at 1 1/16 miles.
The 16 significant events that comprise the “Kentucky Derby Championship Series” during the 10-week run-up to the first Saturday in May remain unchanged from a year ago.
Previously, Churchill used graded earnings as the criteria for determining preference. The change was designed in part to reward horses excelling at longer distances on dirt and who are in good form as the Derby approaches. In that regard, no sprints or grass races are included in the Derby points races.
Meanwhile, the status quo in three areas promises to spark debate. They are:
• Three-year-old fillies must race against males to get points toward making the Derby field. Fillies who beat males in Derby preps do have those points count toward Kentucky Oaks qualification.
• The $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which often crowns America’s 2-year-old champion, again is worth the minimum 10 points — same as Churchill’s Iroquois and Oaklawn’s (so far) non-graded Smarty Jones.
• Hawthorne’s Illinois Derby, which last year produced the very nice horse Departing, remains excluded from the series.