In Due Time Needs Stonestreet Lexington Win To Reach Kentucky Derby

Saturday’s $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) will be make or break time for In Due Time’s chances of making the starting gate for the $3 million Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) to be run May 7 at Churchill Downs.

Owned by the partnership of Edge Racing, Medallion Racing and Parkland Thoroughbreds, In Due Time enters the Stonestreet Lexington off a runner-up finish in the Fountain of Youth (G2) for which he earned 20 points toward the Derby. He would pick up another 20 points Saturday with a victory to vault him into the top 20 on the Derby leaderboard but in a tie with several other horses. (The tiebreaker to determine which of those horses will earn a berth in the Derby is earnings in nonrestricted stakes; with a win, In Due Time would have sufficient earnings to secure a start in the race.)

The Stonestreet Lexington is the final points race for this year’s Run for the Roses, which is limited to the top 20 point earners that pass the entry box May 2.

“We are going to let him do the talking,” trainer Kelly Breen said of In Due Time, who had an easy half-mile work here last Saturday.

“If he gets beat a (narrow margin), I’m going to the Preakness. That’s at the top of my mind,” Breen said if In Due Time doesn’t crack the top 20. “If he gets beat 17½ lengths, we’ll fall back and regroup.”