Over 50 nominations for West Virginia Derby

July 31, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Bill Mooney

CHESTER, W. VA.

Fifty-seven horses have been nominated for the 42nd running of the West Virginia Derby on Saturday.

The 11/8-mile event for three-year-olds will anchor a nine-race card which begins at 2 p.m. at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort.

“The West Virginia Derby is our signature event, and the West Virginia Derby card constitutes our signature day of racing,” said Joe Narcavish, Mountaineer’s racing secretary. “Our guaranteed purse distribution for the day will be $1.47 million. That’s a lot of money for any track, anywhere, in North America.”

Last year’s West Virginia Derby featured a front-running score by Concord Point, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and ridden by Martin Garcia.

Baffert plans to enter Prayer for Relief, a two-length winner of the Iowa Derby on June 25. Concord Point also won the Iowa Derby prior to coming to Mountaineer.

Prayer for Relief is scheduled to arrive at Mountaineer on Monday. The colt, owned by Ahmed Zayat, has a career record that includes six starts, three wins, one second-place finish and purse earnings of $214,000.

Little Drama, bred and owned by Harold L. Queen and trained by David Fawkes, is also considered a likely West Virginia Derby starter. Little Drama twice finished third in Grade 2 events at Gulfstream Park this year, and won the Philmont Stakes at Parx Racing (nee Philadelphia Park) in late April.

A gelding, Little Drama is a homebred half-brother to the 2010 North American sprint champion, Big Drama. In 2009, Big Drama went postward in the West Virginia Derby and blazed to a ten-length lead through the opening half-mile, before losing by a neck to Soul Warrior, trained by Steve Asmussen.

Asmussen has nominated four horses to this year’s race. The group includes Astrology, who finished third in the Preakness Stakes; Awesome Bet, who won the Barbaro Stakes at Delaware Park on July 9; Dominus, who won the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park on July 2, and Wilburn, who was an allowance winner at Churchill Downs in mid-May.