Grade 1, $751,500 Santa Anita Derby, April 8, 2023 (100 qualifying points for first, 40 for second, 30 for third, 20 for fourth, and 10 for fifth) Winner: Practical Move, by Practical Joke Trainer: Tim Yakteen Jockey: Ramon Vazquez Owner: Leslie Amestoy, Pierre Amestoy, and Roger Beasley Distance / time: 1 1/8 miles / 1:48.69 Win margin: Nose Beyer: 100 There was a key scratch before PRACTICAL MOVE’s win in the San Felipe Stakes, when NATIONAL TREASURE was taken out of the race. National Treasure made the gate for the Santa Anita Derby, but GEAUX ROCKET RIDE was withdrawn from the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday morning after contracting what appeared to be a minor illness. Minor or not, he is out of the Kentucky Derby if for no other reason than he won’t have the points to make the field. Practical Move has more Derby qualifying points, 160, than everyone besides Forte. This marked his third straight win following the Los Alamitos Futurity and the San Felipe and sends him to the Derby as the only entrant with two triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures this year. Practical Move, a hearty specimen to be sure, has decent speed, is comfortable racing inside horses, and is adequately responsive to his rider. But if you want to poke for soft spots in his armor, they exist. This was his second straight excellent trip in a row, where Practical Move saved all the ground and encountered no trouble. He beat SKINNER by 3 1/2 lengths in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe and beat him here by a half-length while being saved by the wire: Another stride or two and MANDARIN HERO runs him down. The Santa Anita Derby marked Practical Move’s first start as far as 1 1/8 miles. With Practical Joke as his sire, there were questions about this colt even really wanting two turns. That, he does, but one wonders if the longer trip accounted for the narrow victory, and how Practical Move will handle an additional furlong at long-stretch Churchill Downs. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2023: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Practical Move and regular rider Ramon Vazquez were one of the last out of the gate in a race where everyone broke okay, breaking outward and causing a minor bumping incident to their outside, then moving from fifth in the first 50 yards down to the inside and up into third behind little-hope pace horses ONE IN VERMILLION and LOW EXPECTATIONS. Snugged along the fence, Practical Move tried to get a little strong at the end of the clubhouse turn and again past the six-furlong marker, but Vazquez had no trouble taking him back in hand, guiding Practical Move from the No. 2 path down to the rail with five furlongs left to race. One in Vermillion helpfully drifted out a path going into the far turn, and Vazquez poked his mount’s nose up into the hole, which grew wider when One in Vermillion cornered even wider. Practical Move had grabbed the lead at the five-sixteenths pole, cruised into the homestretch with a clear advantage, and as usual changed leads professionally. Vazquez went to the crop one time at the eighth pole and gave Practical Move a couple more right-handers, but Practical Move was giving all he had and the two behind him were closing. Vazquez somewhat awkwardly switched to a left-handed crop for the final 50 yards, and as he switched sticks, Practical Move drifted off his line. Maybe that was because Vazquez had shifted his weight while switching sticks; maybe it was Practical Move getting tired. Coming out, he put Mandarin Hero in very tight quarters, and while this happened just before the wire, the margin was a nose, and it’s a little surprising there was neither an inquiry nor an objection. Accomplished, professional, and fast – that’s how Practical Move looks shipping to Kentucky. Formidable? Not so much. :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.  It was hard to know what to make of Mandarin Hero – other than Japanese horses had run one-two-three in the UAE Derby and have been making stronger and stronger global inroads over the last several years. Racing on the lesser National Association of Racing circuit in Japan, Mandarin Hero had won four of his five starts, and while he had finished second Feb. 23 in this first try as far as nine furlongs, he did appear to stay the distance while closing steadily that day. With California-based jockey Kazushi Kimura up, Mandarin Hero, quite a bit smaller than Practical Move and Skinner, was pushed out a bit from post 8 by a chain reaction to his inside, securing a spot in fifth as Kimura wisely dropped from the No. 5 to No. 2 path into the clubhouse turn. Mandarin Hero traveled strongly from midpack down the backstretch, and going to the half-mile pole, you could see Kimura eyeing Practical Move and Vazquez, who were inside and in front of him. Once again, Kimura moved inside bending into the turn, going from four or five paths off the fence down near the rail as DAZZLEMESILVER, who was trying to follow Practical Move, fell out of contention. Mandarin Hero blew past a tiring Low Expectations but found himself hemmed in, with Low Expectations and Practical Move ahead of him, National Treasure and Skinner stacked to his outside. Back down at the fence turning for home, Kimura considered a rail run (or, possibly, feinted at one) before steering right, putting a fading Low Expectations in tight. Skinner held firm on his line, and past the three-sixteenths, Mandarin Hero didn’t have a path between Skinner and Practical Move. But the colt made his own room, confidently bulling into the narrow gap and taking aim at Practical Move. The leader’s rightward drift might well have cost him something, and Mandarin Hero was in front a jump past the line. Mandarin Hero, by Shanghai Bobby, has 40 points and is on the cusp of making the Derby field. He deserves a spot in the race. The colt appears to be brave, stays a real distance, and with a 100 Beyer of his own, clearly is fast enough. I’d favor him over Practical Move in Louisville. :: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.  Skinner also is a cusp horse, though he needs only one defection among the top 20 points-earners to make the Derby field. Bumped lightly by National Treasure at the start, Skinner fell back to seventh before the first turn, but unlike in the San Felipe, where he dropped too far behind in the early stages, Skinner kept up with the pack this time. About three paths off the fence, he moved behind Mandarin Hero at the seven-furlong marker, really in the bridle for jockey Victor Espinoza going down the backstretch. As Mandarin Hero found inside passage early on the far turn, Espinoza let his mount loose while moving sharply four wide. Skinner went past National Treasure and was less than a length behind Practical Move at the quarter pole, but he was a little late to change leads and a little awkward doing so, and that slight loss of momentum came just as Mandarin Hero launched his attack. Skinner stayed on solidly but could make no strong progress on Practical Move while being outfinished by Mandarin Hero. Beaten only a half-length, however, he ran the best race of his career, and if he gets into the Derby, it will be on an improving pattern. National Treasure, racing for the first time since Jan. 8, ran like a horse who’d missed a start and some amount of training. Pushed slightly out at the start, he stalked the pace from the outside and still was in the thick of things at the five-sixteenth pole, but the second- and third-place finishers came home considerably better, National Treasure a one-paced fourth, 1 1/4 lengths in front of fifth-place One in Vermillion. National Treasure had a tough trip in his lone previous start this season; he won’t make the Derby field but remains a somewhat unexposed horse this year. One in Vermillion, coming out of a fifth in the Sunland Derby, set a lively tempo, easily disposed of pace rival Low Expectations, and hung around better than one might have expected for a solid fifth. It was nine lengths back to sixth-place I DON’T GET IT, who lumbered along near the back of the field the whole trip. Dazzlemesilver was done at the half-mile pole, and Low Expectations was all but eased after chasing the pace. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.