Thirteen Entered in the Louisiana Derby

Thirteen colts will are scheduled to enter the starting gate in this Saturday's Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds.  The headliner of the field is Discreetly Mine, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star, who was installed as the 7/2 morning line favorite. 

Below are the entries and the morning line odds for the $750,000 Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.  Post time is scheduled for 4:48 Central.

Some initial thoughts on the field after the jump...

• Bob Baffert's The Program ships to Louisiana from SoCal following his third place finish in the Sham on March 6^th.  This will be The Program's first start on dirt.
• If Lecomte winner Ron the Greek has any Derby dreams he'll probably need to at least finish second or else he'll be seriously lacking in graded earnings.
• Last time out, Discreetly Mine won the Risen Star by controlling the pace from the second the gate opened on his way to a wire-to-wire win.  This race, however, should prove to a little more challenging due to the extra distance and the presence of Wow Wow Wow and A Little Warm, two colts that should add some pace to the race.
• Speaking of A Little Warm, the Louisiana Derby is a big test for a colt that has yet to run longer than seven panels in his young career.  And just looking at this colt's pedigree suggests that the 1 1/8 mile Louisiana Derby will be a serious test of his stamina. 
  
  A Little Warm is sired by Stormin Fever, a two-time winner of the Grade 1 Vosburgh, and a winner of the Iselin, the Salvator Mile, and the Withers.  Just looking at his sire, this colt is bred to run best from 7f to a mile. 
  
  The dam of A Little Warm is Minidar, a daughter of Alydar that excelled at sprinting on the dirt during her career.  Her foals have found middling success both sprinting and routing.
• There certainly isn't a shortage of stone cold closers in this field as Ron the Greek, Stay Put, and Minister Marti Gras will all be looking for some pace help up front early on. 
• Nick Zito, hot off of Ice Box's win in the Florida Derby, rolls into New Orleans with Fly Down, a winner in a Gulfstream N1X event at 1 1/8 miles last time out.  Fly Down defeated Florida Derby runner First Dude in each of his last two races in Florida.