Another weekend is upon us and there’s nothing like spending a Saturday at the track. This weekend features the G2 $500,000 Lane’s End for three year olds trying to stamp their ticket to the Kentucky Derby.

Last weekend the best of the this years crop of three year olds competed on conventional dirt tracks at Tampa Bay Downs, Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Park with Friesan Fire being the standout performer while winning the G2 $600,000 Louisiana Derby.

Tomorrow’s Lane’s End will be run on the ‘always fast’ Polytrack at Turfway Park.

Todd Pletcher sends in Bittel Road from the west coast where he finished fourth in his last race against Pioneer of the Nile in the Robert B. Lewis over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride surface. In seven starts, Bittel Road is 3-1-0 while racing either on grass or synthetic surfaces. He’ll probably share favoritism with West Side Bernie and gets Garrett Gomez in the saddle.

West Side Bernie won his second start, the G3 Kentucky Cup Juvenile, last year over the Turfway Polytrack then ran respectably in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. His sire is Bernstein who’s quickly becoming a leading sire of synthetic specialists. He gets his third rider in Edgar Prado and looks to be one of the ones.

Parade Clown has two wins and two seconds over the Turfway strip since adding blinkers. In his last race, the John Battaglia Memorial, he was the 3-5 favorite and was beaten by Proceed Bee. Trainer Katherine Ball sees fit to bring in Eibar Coa and we look for him to improve off his last race.

Proceed Bee, sired by Bernstein, added blinkers for his last and is two for two over synthetic surfaces winning his maiden race at Arlington last summer. He’s trained by Terry Gestes who is 33% in graded stakes races. He breaks from post twelve but has a victory on the grass at Churchill where he broke from the eleven post.

The Pick: Proceed Bee

Exacta Box: Proceed Bee, Parade Clown, West Side Bernie