A field of 13 3-year-olds, headed by Grade 1 winner East Avenue, was entered Saturday for the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 15. The Grade 2, $500,000 Risen Star, carded for 1 1/8 miles as the last of 14 races at Fair Grounds, six of them stakes, is the first 105-point scoring race (50-25-15-10-5) on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby, a series of stakes for 2- and 3-year-olds that awards Derby qualifying points to the top finishers. The final points standings determine the field for the Derby, which is capped at 20 runners. Race favorite East Avenue, well drawn in post 4, has the third-highest point total in the Risen Star, which has a post time of 6:30 p.m. Central, about 40 minutes after sunset. East Avenue, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brendan Walsh, earned his 10 Derby points with a 5 1/4-length win last October in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, a 1 1/16-mile contest that followed a smashing six-furlong debut score for East Avenue, a son of Medaglia d’Oro. Favored in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, East Avenue stumbled badly leaving the starting gate and never came close to contention, finishing a distant ninth, but things have gone much more smoothly for the imposing colt since Walsh began gearing him up for his 3-year-old bow. East Avenue, following a relatively short break from training, had his first post-Breeders’ Cup workout Jan. 3 and has breezed every six to nine days since. He broke from the gate without incident in a long, strong Feb. 1 drill and punctuated his pattern with a five-furlong move clocked in 1:00.40 Saturday morning. Tyler Gaffalione comes in from Florida to retain the mount. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Built has accumulated 20 qualifying points winning the Gun Runner at Fair Grounds on Dec. 26 by nearly seven lengths and struggling home second in the Jan. 18 Lecomte, run over a sloppy racing surface Built clearly disliked. Trainer Wayne Catalano initially said he expected to pass on the Risen Star and await the Louisiana Derby, but Built was entered, drew post 9, and has a new rider, Luis Saez. Jonathan’s Way, seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and subsequently second in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, has earned 15 Derby qualifying points and will break Saturday from post 2 under new jockey Jose Ortiz. Two for two in one-turn races, Jonathan’s Way, a son of Vekoma trained by Philip Bauer, will try to solidify his route credentials Saturday in his 3-year-old debut. The other entrants, from the rail out, are American Promise, fourth on Jan. 25 in the Southwest at Oaklawn; the Todd Pletcher-trained Vassimo, 2 for 2 after a maiden win at Gulfstream Park and a Tampa Bay allowance score; longshots Chunk of Gold and Seattle Road; Septarian, who makes his first start in blinkers and second for trainer Chad Brown after a modest third-place finish in the Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream; Giocoso, who posted an extremely fast 1:11.80 six-furlong workout Feb. 1 at Fair Grounds; Render Judgment, a mildly encouraging third in the Gun Runner; and the three longshots Jolly Samurai, Vamos Carlitos, and Magnitude. The Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, contested over 1 1/16 miles, the first 105-point qualifying race on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, drew just seven 3-year-old fillies but includes at least three potentially major Oaks contenders in Good Cheer, Simply Joking, and Ballerina d’Oro. Good Cheer, drawn in post 2 under Saez, brings to her 3-year-old bow a perfect record from four starts, all easy wins, the last two in the $199,000 Rags to Riches and the Grade 2 Golden Rod. A Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, Good Cheer has been on a steady workout pattern at the Payson Park training center in Florida since Jan. 4. Simply Joking won her career debut racing six furlongs in the Letellier Stakes in December and successfully stretched to two turns winning the Silverbulletday last month by 2 1/2 lengths over Bless the Broken, another Rachel Alexandra entrant. Trained by Whit Beckman for a partnership, Simply Joking drew post 6 with regular rider Jaime Torres named. Ballerina d’Oro, trained by Brown with Flavien Prat in to ride her for the first time, made three turf starts before switching to dirt in the Grade 2 Demoiselle on Dec. 7 at Aqueduct, where she put in a strong run from last of 10 finishing second behind the undefeated Cox-trained filly Muhimma. The Fair Grounds Stakes, a Grade 3, $175,000 turf route, drew a relatively modest group of 10 and is surpassed in quality by the Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft Stakes. Catching Freedom, another Cox-trained horse shipping from Payson, makes his first start since a subpar showing June 22 in the Ohio Derby. Earlier in his 3-year-old campaign, Catching Freedom won the Louisiana Derby before finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness. The Mineshaft also lured Ohio Derby winner Batten Down, who makes his 4-year-old bow following a much shorter layoff than Catching Freedom’s. Batten Down finished a somewhat disappointing fourth as the odds-on favorite Nov. 4 in the Discovery at Aqueduct.   Those two must deal with fellow 4-year-old Hall of Fame, already two starts into his current form cycle, a solid one-turn mile, first-level allowance score in December followed by an eye-catching two-turn, second-level allowance win Jan. 5 that yielded a lofty 103 Beyer Speed Figure. Nanda Dea, a multiple Group 1 winner in Argentina, tops an overflow field in the $100,000 Albert Stall Memorial, a female-restricted turf route, while the $100,000 Colonel Power, a grass sprint, attracted 10 entrants. First post for the marathon card is noon Central. The long-range weather forecast calls for a chance of rain later Saturday afternoon. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.