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KRA Stud Farm’s colt Knicks Go will make his three-year-old debut this Saturday (US time) with Road to Kentucky Derby points on the line when he takes on an anticipated nine rivals in the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Knicks Go was a shock 70/1 winner of the G1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland last October but confirmed his ability a month later when running 2nd to Game Winner in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile – this time at odds of 40/1 – at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Ben Colebrook has several KRA-owned horses in his string and Knicks Go was among those moved to Tampa Bay Downs for the winter and early Spring. He’s been working well, breezing 5-furlongs the fastest of 39 in his main work at the end of January.
The Sam F. Davis is run over approximately 1700M and previous winners include Any Given Saturday, who now stands at Stud in Korea. The winner will receive 10 Kentucky Derby points with 2nd to 4th earning 4, 2 and 1 respectively.
Knicks Go will carry top-weight in the contest, which will be race 11 on the program at Tampa Bay, going to post at 5.25pm local Florida time (7.25am Sunday morning Korean time). It is set to be a stiff test which features two other Graded Stakes winners; Five Star General and Well Defined also taking their chance. Regular jockey Albin Jiminez will ride Knicks Go.
A colt by Paynter, Knicks Go is part of the “K-Nicks” program which uses a genome analysis developed by the KRA’s Jin-Woo Lee to identify yearlings with the potential to go on to become stallions. He was purchased for $87,000.
