JOURNAL SPORTS
Saturday’s 43rd running of Louisiana Downs’ signature race, the Super Derby, offers the richest purse of the season at the Bossier City track.
The $250,000 Super Derby is sponsored by Cypress Solar & Roofing. First run in 1980, the Super Derby has always been the track’s premier event during the Thoroughbred season.
It is the seventh race on an eight-race card. First race goes off at 3:35 p.m., with the Super Derby slated to start at 6:36.
Instant Replay is the 6-5 morning-line favorite, conditioned by North America’s leading trainer, Brad Cox, a two-time Eclipse Award winner whose horses won the 2021 Kentucky Derby (Mandaloun) and Belmont Stakes (Essential Quality).
Instant Replay took the Texas Derby at Lone Star Park and the Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oaklawn Park earlier this year.
The second choice at 2-1 is Rolando, who has won three of five starts this year
In the proud past of the Super Derby, the race has attracted some of the sport’s top thoroughbred horses, jockeys and trainers. Past champions include the 1980 Belmont Stakes winner, Temperence Hill, who won the inaugural Super Derby, and iconic horses Sunday Silence, Tiznow, and Alysheba, but declining purses under previous ownership at the track and a steep downturn in the racing industry nationally has dimmed the national reputation of the race this century.
Louisiana Downs has some added appeal Saturday, including special dining options, a handicapping seminar, free kids zone, a ladies hat contest, a jockey meet and greet session. The 2025 Thoroughbred season at LaD runs through Sept. 29.