SAM F. DAVIS STAKES PART OF KENTUCKY DERBY POINTS SYSTEM

Anticipation is building to a fever pitch for the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds at Tampa Bay Downs, one of three official Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands prep races scheduled across the nation for Saturday.

The Davis is the focal point of Festival Preview Day, which marks the first time in the track's 87-year history three graded stakes will be contested on the same card. The others are the Grade III, $150,000 Florida Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on the turf and the Grade III, $150,000 Endeavour Stakes for older fillies and mares on the turf. Entries will be taken Wednesday in the racing office for all three races, each to be run at a mile-and-a-sixteenth.

The Sam F. Davis is part of the new points system being employed by Churchill Downs to determine which 20 horses qualify for the 139th running of the $2-million Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on May 4. Churchill Downs had used graded-stakes earnings as the criteria since 1986.

The Davis is one of 36 stakes races comprising the points race and one of 19 races in the "Kentucky Derby Prep Season" category. As such, it will award 10 points to the winner, four to the second-place finisher, two to third and one to fourth.

A total of 17 races, including the Grade II, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 9, comprise the "Kentucky Derby Championship Series," with the Tampa Bay Derby falling into the First Leg and awarding 50 points to the winner, 20 to second, 10 to third and five to fourth.