Blue Grass Stakes 2012: Favorite Hansen Will Use Race as Springboard for Derby

There are three horses that the world will be watching with bated breath in Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. But as the favorite, Hansen is the one that must use this race to get the momentum he needs prior to the Kentucky Derby.

The Blue Grass Stakes—to be televised on CNBC at 6 p.m. ET—will be Hansen's final Grade 1 prep race before the Derby. Given that there is only one other two-year-old champion to win the Derby since 1979 (that was 2007 winner Street Sense), his chances may seem long, but in beating Derby future wager favorite Union Rags in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, he proved to be worth the hype.

There will be 13 competitors in Saturday's race, which stretches one mile and a furlong and is worth a hefty $750,000 purse. Behind Hansen, the favorites are Howe Great and Prospective. 

Hansen has won four of his five career starts. Particularly impressive for him was a stretch between September and November 2011, when he won the first three races of his career, all in succession, for a hat trick.

Howe Great has won two straight starts and looks to make it a hat trick of his own on Saturday, while Prospective has emerged victorious in four of seven starts. 

Hansen owner-breeder Dr. Kendall Hansen told the New York Post's Ed Fountaine he expects a battle on Saturday: 

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I’m really shocked to see how tough the Blue Grass is coming up. There’s some great competition in there, and he’s going to have to run well just to win the race. Of course, we don’t have to win, but it sure would be nice to see him win by daylight and have plenty left at the end. 

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One dark horse on Saturday could be Dullahan, whose one career win came last October in the Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders' Futurity. He recently finished second to Howe Great in the Grade III Palm Beach Stakes, and now that his earnings are enough to lock him into the Derby field, his owners have had the luxury of designing a schedule that will give him the best chance to truly compete in—and possibly win—the Derby. 

Dullahan owner Jerry Crawford told the Herald-Leader's Alicia Wincze Hughes: 

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[Trainer] Dale [Romans] has been very disciplined in trying to create a situation where this horse will peak on May 5. As much as we'd love to win the Blue Grass, and we'll be trying to, the goal is not to peak that day either. Ideally, we'd like him to do what Strike the Gold did [in 1991] and win the Blue Grass and the Derby. But if we have to follow the Street Sense path of second in the Blue Grass and win the Derby, we would settle for that. 

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Whether it's Dullahan, Hansen or another horse that comes out ahead of the pack on Saturday, the winner will certainly use the race to certify himself as a primary contender to for the main event on May 5.