Betting The Horses

John Sadler got his first win when he was 23 years old and has since gone on to win over $50 million in purses.  Despite his success and prominence in California horse racing, he has only had one horse start at the Kentucky Derby – Corby, who finished sixth in the 1993 Kentucky Derby.  This year, he has multiple horses who stand a good chance at making it to the Run for the Roses.  One of them is Dave in Dixie.

Dave in Dixe was purchased by John Sadler for $310,000 at the Keeneland April sale of selected two-year-olds in training.  He is the son of Dixie Union, winner of the 2000 Grade 1 Haskell in Monmouth Park.

Dave in Dixie was impressive in his 2-year-old debut.  On August 29, 2009, he won at Del Mar’s synthetic Polytrack surface.  In October of that same year, he finished in sixth in the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes.

He was also impressive in his first graded stakes race as a 3-year-old. With Joel Rosario aboard, he rallied for second, one-half length ahead of American Lion at the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes.  The two favorites in the race were American Lion and Tiz Chrome, and Dave in Dixie finished ahead of both of them.

His next two graded stakes races were disappointments.  He finished sixth in the San Felipe Stakes (Grade 2) back in March.  This past Saturday, he finished in fifth place at the Illinois Derby (Grade 3).  He is not among the top 20 horses and will likely not be starting in the Kentucky Derby.