Every Kentucky Derby points race matters, which is one of the things that makes the Triple Crown trail great, but some mean a little more when you’re high on a contender as an actual Derby contender.

So it goes with the Southwest Stakes (G3) on Saturday at Oaklawn Park where both Gaming and Patch Adams make their three-year-old debuts with plenty of buzz in tow.

Gaming is the field’s lone graded stakes winner and only stakes winner on dirt. Tiztastic, the only other stakes winner in the field, won the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes on turf).

Gaming’s class edge could be why he is the 2-1 morning line favorite over Patch Adams despite Patch Adams being the 12-1 second choice in the recently concluded Kentucky Derby future wager while Gaming closed as the 38-1 12th choice. Tiztastic was the 108-1 35th choice out of 39.

I expect Patch Adams to be favored in the Southwest in his stakes debut after absolutely smoking maidens on Nov. 30 at Churchill Downs. He won that race by 10 1/2 lengths, and with regular pilot Florent Geroux at Gulfstream to ride another Brad Cox trainee in Saudi Crown in the Pegasus World Cup, Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat has the mount on Patch Adams.

Bob Baffert trains Gaming, and that Hall of Fame conditioner needs no introduction at Oaklawn where he has won this race six times in the past 15 years. Of course Gaming will be a clear second choice. I just do not see him favored over a horse who took that much money just last week in a Derby futures wager and ran so fast last out.

Of course, there is not prize for successfully identifying the favorite; we want to identify value, and Patch Adams could be it. He certainly is a single in the multi-race wagers, as I think too many players will at least use both logicals if not overspread over concern that Patch Adams is making his stakes and two-turn debuts. I’m not concerned about that.