Triple Crown season is upon us. This coming Saturday, the world will see a new Kentucky Derby champion, and while there are the favorites like Justify, Mendelssohn, and Audible, there are other horses who are capable of upsetting the field and shocking the horse racing world. Let’s check on three of those colts who could win the 144th event as a sleeper.
Promises Fulfilled took a hit in his last race, when he finished ninth in last March’s Florida Derby Grade 1 race. It was the three-year-old’s first non-podium finish in six races. Prior to that, he finished first three times and third once. Among those first-place finishes was during the Fountain of Youth Grade 2. Trained by Dale L. Romans, Promises Fulfilled’s recent dud outs him in the shadows, lurking for a shock win in the Derby, which it is capable of doing. Speaking of Romans, his horse have won 27 times out of 143 starts this year.
Promises Fulfilled is not the only horse Romans is grooming for the Kentucky Derby, as Free Drop Billy is also under his watchful eye. Like Promises Fulfilled, Free Drop Billy has showed in all but one race in his career so far. In eight total starts, Free Drop Billy has finished first twice, second thrice, third twice, and a ninth-place finisher once. He will be racing in the Derby coming off back-to-back third-place campaigns. Romans thinks that Free Drop Billy is better in races that go over a mile. Following the horse’s win in the 2017 Breeders’ Futurity Grade I race, Romans that “If you look at all his [Free Drop Billy] numbers on paper, every time they stretched a race a bit, he got a little bit better.“
Firenze Fire came out like a house on fire in his early races, winning three of his first four races, which included a win in the Sanford Grade 3 race and in the Champagne Grade 1 race. He has not won in his last three races, though, he showed with a second-place finish in the Withers Grade 3 race back in February. In the Champagne Stakes, Firenze Fire bested fellow Kentucky Derby-bound colt Good Magic, making him a viable sleeper pick for this May 5 race.
