GRADE 3 OKLAHOMA DERBY FIELD, POST POSITIONS & MORNING LINE ODDS

The 36th Oklahoma Derby features a field of eight horses with some sharp shippers heading to Remington Park. Steve Asmussen, all-time winningest trainer in North American horse racing history and current leading conditioner nationally by money earned will take on national rivals Brad Cox, John Sadler, Doug O'Neill and Danny Gargan.

Boyd "Jobe" Caster and Shawn Davis will carry the local flag with two horses that have been on the Remington Park grounds this meet.

The race will also include some of the top jockeys in the game, including Hall of Famer Mike Smith.

1 - INDISPENSABLE (3-1)

Owner: Talla Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Edwin S. Barker

Trainer: John Sadler

Jockey: Reylu Gutierrez

This colt by Constitution, a top-five sire in the country this year, comes into the Oklahoma Derby as a runner-up in California stakes company for Sadler, who has gained fame throughout his long career, but especially in 2022, conditioning Flightline, the Breeders' Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award-winning Horse of the Year.

Flightline retired undefeated at six-for-six with four Grade 1 wins. Indispensible doesn't quite have the credentials of some of Sadler's top horses, but he did run second last time out in the $125,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar near San Diego, losing to Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby winner Muth.

He was bred in Kentucky by Nursery Place, Donaldson & Broadbent. Indispensible was originally bought at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2021 for $330,000, but the current owners purchased him for $825,000 in the Keeneland September Yearling Sale of 2022 when he was pinhooked back into that auction. Record: 10 starts, one win, three seconds and four thirds for $130,200 in earnings.

2 - E J WON THE CUP (4-1)

Owner: Superfecta King Stable

Trainer: Doug O'Neill

Jockey: Mike Smith

This colt by Omaha Beach has already won three derbies this year - the $60,000 Turf Paradise Derby in Phoenix, Ariz., the $300,000 Indiana Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis, and most recently the St. Louis Derby at FanDuel in Illinois.

Mike Smith, a Hall of Fame jockey who has won more than 5,700 races in his career, will be making his return to Remington Park for the first time since he rode here regularly in 1988. Smith has ridden some of the all-time great horses in his career, including Zenyatta, Justify, Arrogate, Azeri, Holy Bull and Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo. He rode E J Won the Cup in his Texas and St. Louis derby wins and will be riding the top earner in the field.

E J Won the Cup was bred in Kentucky by Hoolie Racing Stable. E J Won the Cup was originally sold for $150,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale of 2021 for $150,000 and the current owners then purchased him for $95,000 in the Keeneland September Yearling Sale of 2022. Record: 12-4-3-2, $540,580 in earnings.

3 - CANADA GATE (8-1)

Owner: Hronis Racing

Trainer: John Sadler

Jockey: Armando Ayuso

This 3-year-old colt by Constitution, out of the Stay Thirsty mare Princess Karen, is the second of two horses Sadler entered. Sadler has won two Breeders' Cup Classics in his career, one with Flightline and the other with Accelerate in 2018. Canada Gate will be ridden by Armando Ayuso, who interestingly won the Turf Paradise Derby aboard E J Won the Cup, another horse in the Oklahoma Derby.

This colt is a maiden winner from the West Coast where he won for the first time in the fifth race of his career by 1-3/4 lengths at Del Mar as the 4-5 favorite. He also finished only three-quarters of a length behind his stablemate, the 3-1 Oklahoma Derby second favorite, Indispensible, in another maiden race at Del Mar. This will be his first stakes try. He was bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte. Record: 5-1-1-1, $66,600.

4 - FLAT HANBY (15-1)

Owner: JT Stables (Theresa Moore) of Tontitown, Ark.

Trainer: Boyd "Jobe" Caster

Jockey: Floyd Wethey Jr.

This son of perennial top Oklahoma sire Flat Out, from the Ocean Terrace mare Jealous Ellis, has won his last five races in a row, three of them stakes races - the $50,000 Canterbury Derby in Minnesota, the $70,000 Iowa Stallion Stakes at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, and the $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes at Remington Park. The oddest stat concerning this horse is that during his five-race win streak, he has had four different riders.

Only Wethey has won aboard him twice, when he broke his maiden at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla. in April, and in the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes. He is unbeaten this year in five starts as a 3-year-old. Flat Hanby will be taken off Lasix for this race, per stakes requirements here, but he was a winner without the diuretic in the Canterbury Derby and the Iowa Stallion Stakes. He is a home-bred for Joe and Theresa Moore. Record: 7-5-0-0, $119,722.

5 - DIMATIC (9-2)

Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds (Ron Winchell) of Las Vegas

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

Jockey: Stewart Elliott

This colt is a son of Gun Runner, a Hall of Fame racehorse who was conditioned by Asmussen and was voted 2017 Eclipse Award-winning Horse of the Year. Gun Runner won more than $15 million on the track and as a sire has produced runners who have made him proud. Gun Runner has produced 10 Grade 1 winners and 13 millionaires so far and is a top-five sire in the country.

Dimatic, out of the Tapit mare Time to Tap, has yet to win a stakes race in his career, but broke his maiden with ease at Oaklawn Park by three lengths over a sloppy track. His chances could improve if showers are in the forecast. Always hard to count out an Asmussen horse as he has won the Oklahoma Derby twice - last year with longshot How Did He Do That and also in 2017 with Untrapped. Asmussen has won more races in North American than any trainer in the history of the sport. He also has won 18 training titles at Remington Park.

Dimatic is stakes-placed in a couple of derbies, running second to Dragoon Guard in the Grade 3, $500,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer and in the Texas Derby to E J Won the Cup, also entered here. He was bred in Kentucky by his owner. Record: 10-2-2-1, $414,003.

6 - MOST WANTED (5-2)

Owner: Gary and Mary West of Omaha, Neb.

Trainer: Brad Cox

Jockey: Florent Geroux

Has raced fewer times than any of these with only three career races, but this colt by Candy Ride (ARG), out of the Distorted Humor mare Beach Walk, runs for trainer Brad Cox, who has won the Oklahoma Derby three times in consecutive years from 2019-2021, winning for the first time with Owendale, followed by Shared Sense and Warrant. He knows how to get a horse to the winner's circle in this race.

Cox also sits third in the national trainer standings, behind only Asmussen in first with more than $22 million in horses' earnings and Chad Brown with more than $21 million. Cox is third passing the $19 million mark, according to Equibase statistics.

Most Wanted might be lightly raced, but he is undefeated after three starts, breaking his maiden at first asking in a $120,000 maiden race at Churchill Downs, a first-level allowance race at Ellis Park and then the $275,000 Ellis Park Derby with Geroux up in all starts. He was bred in Kentucky by his owners. Record: 3-3-0-0, $279,553.

7 - MENA (20-1)

Owner: George A. Sharp of Delray Beach, Fla.

Trainer: Shawn Davis

Jockey: David Cabrera

This son of Hard Spun, out of the Congrats mare Pangburn, is the longest shot on the board in the morning line, but his connections should remember that How Did He Do That won the Oklahoma Derby last year at 44-1 odds by a nose. Gets Remington Park's four-time jockeys title winner David Cabrera for this and no one knows this track better than him.

Mena and E J Won the Cup are the two most experienced colts in the race with 12 races apiece. While E J Won the Cup is a multiple stakes winner, Mena has yet to win a stakes race. His first two career wins came in Kentucky when he broke his maiden at Keeneland in Lexington by 12-1/4 lengths with maiden claiming $30,000 horses as a 2-year-old in October 2023, followed by a starter allowance victory for $50,000 horses at Churchill Downs in Louisville, by three lengths in his very next start the following month.

As a 3-year-old, he has only won one of eight starts, but that one trip to the winner's circle came at Remington Park against allowance horses on Sept. 11. Mena was bred in Kentucky by Short Leaf Stable. Record: 12-3-2-0, $169,438.

8 - SOCIETY MAN (6-1)

Owner: Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, West Paces Racing, GMP Stables, Carl and Yurie Pascarella.

Trainer: Danny Gargan

Jockey: Corey Lanerie

Trainer Danny Gargan currently trains one of the top 3-year-olds in the country with Dornoch, who won the Belmont and Haskell Stakes this year. Society Man wasn't that far back of Dornoch in talent as he ran second in one of the biggest Kentucky Derby prep races on the spring trail. This gelded son of Good Magic, out of the Colonel John mare You Cheated, was a runner-up by 2-1/4 lengths to Resilience in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in April.

He went on to run in the Kentucky Derby, but finished a well-beaten 16th. This gelding is the only graded stakes winner in the field, having captured the Grade 3, $400,000 Matt Winn Stakes by 2-1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs on June 9 with Corey Lanerie up.

Lanerie will make the trip in to continue to ride Society Man. He ran third in his most recent race, the West Virginia Derby, finishing 2-1/2 lengths back of Asmussen's Dimatic, who also is a part of this race. Society Man is the second highest money earner in the field. Another one who would like a wet track as he broke his maiden at Aqueduct over a muddy surface.

He was purchased for $85,000 from the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2022. Society Man was bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock. Record: 8-2-1-2, $487,230.

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