Unbeaten Essential Quality is the 3-5 Blue Grass favorite

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Unbeaten Essential Quality is the 3-5 morning line favorite and will start from the No. 4 post for the $800,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland race course The Brad Cox-trained champion colt, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Breeders’ Futurity last fall at Keeneland, is 4-0 lifetime including a 4¼-length win in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oakland on Feb. 27. Highly Motivated will start the nine-horse, Grade 2 race for 3-year-olds beside Essential Quality as the 7-2 second choice from the No. 3 post. Untreated and Keepmeinmind are 8-1 third choices. The race awards 170 total points to horses toward the Kentucky Derby.