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05/02/12 Alpha Heads Towards The Kentucky Derby

GODOLPHIN'S Alpha (Kiaran McLaughlin/Ramon Dominguez) took another step closer to the Kentucky Derby with victory in the Withers Stakes on Saturday.

Sent off 7-20 favourite, the son of Bernardini recorded an easy 3¼-length success over outsider Speightscity in the $200,000 event.

Despite being forced to race three wide on both turns, Alpha was always close to the pace before kicking away in the stretch for a comfortable verdict in a time of 1m44.23s.

"The plans will be to talk to Simon Crisford from Godolphin to see which way to go," said winning trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

"He's here in New York right now but he could relocate or he could run back in the Gotham in a month. We'll just have to talk about it. At least we got $120,000 in graded earnings going forward to the first Saturday in May. That's important.

"I think he improved some because of how wide he was both trips, and he was better in the gate. He gets a better grade for this race - if it was a ‘B' last time, he gets an ‘A' this time."

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