With just two months until Kentucky Derby 2025, it’s time to start looking at the weather forecast. 

Just kidding!

We are at the stage of the Triple Crown trail, though, that any serious contender should be moving forward. Stalling or, worse, moving backward is not a rosy path. 

So it should come as no surprise, then, that the biggest winners this weekend were the points-race winners and those who did not perform as well, Burnham Square and Rodriguez, dropped in my rankings.

The biggest winner is unquestionably Journalism, who looked awesome running down a mostly loose leader in Barnes to win the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes going away. I slotted Journalism as my current second choice behind champion Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Citizen Bull, who has yet to give a reason he is still not the best of his generation and who managed a gate-to-wire win as a 3-year-old while other Bob Baffert-trained runners such as Barnes and Madaket Road both have been run down.

Sovereignty won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) not only over the favored Burnham Square but also over the up-and-coming Todd Pletcher-trained wunderkind River Thames, running that one down on a track profile at Gulfstream that does not necessarily favor that style.

Journalism and Sovereignty both closed their 2-year-old season with stakes wins before returning this weekend with impressive efforts. 

The other prep winner was Flood Zone in the Gotham Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct. There is less to glean from that effort, given it was a one-turn mile against the least accomplished group of the weekend. But he looked doing it, and Sand Devil had a bit of esteem going into that as an undefeated New York-bred.

Speaking of big winners this weekend, we’d be remiss if we did not mention that Mike Shutty’s Super Screener swept the Derby preps as gave out $1,600 worth of winning wagers in the Kilroe Mile.

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