Ed Derosa

The fields for the six turf stakes slated for Virginia Derby day at Colonial Downs on Saturday, Sept. 7, have started to take shape. The closing-day program is seeded with $1.3 million in stakes purses.

Some of the biggest names from the maiden ranks over the summer at Saratoga will meet in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on closing day, Monday, and for me the choices are clear.

Kentucky Downs isn’t the only track in the nation with an abundance of high-quality turf racing right now. The Colonial Downs meet is in full swing, and nine of Wednesday’s 11 races at the New Vent, Va., oval will be contested on the lawn. My picks for five of the day’s events are below.

The 3-year-olds already were thought to be better than their elders going into Labor Day weekend, and nothing we saw in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar or the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) on Sunday at Saratoga changed that notion.

Grand Mo the First was an underlaid 49-1 in the Kentucky Derby, but Ed DeRosa says he's the value of the Virginia Derby

What the Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson Stakes on Saturday at Kentucky Downs lacks in depth, with no graded-stakes winners among the 16 entered, it certainly makes up for in competitiveness. The morning-line favorite is 4-1, and no horse is more than 20-1 on Nick Tammaro's line.

Jockey Fernando de la Cruz won the race but lost the film review, as Indiana Racing Commission stewards suspended the journeyman three days for his ride abord Here U Come Again in race 9 on Aug. 29 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

It is very rare that trainer Aidan O'Brien ships a horse to a North American graded-stakes race who does not factor among the top contenders via Brisnet's Class Ratings, but that is the case with Mountain Bear in the Grade 3 Mint Millions Stakes on Saturday at Kentucky Downs.

It is not news that Bob Baffert is expected to win his 18th Del Mar Futurity and fourth consecutive edition of the West Coast’s most prestigious summer race for 2-year-olds, but it is worth noting that I don’t think it will happen with the favorite.

Cogburn has been as impressive as any turf sprinter this year, winning consecutive graded stakes in scintillating fashion, the types of wins that attract money independent of the variables surrounding their next race.