Unbridled Will Take on ‘Squall : Horse racing: They will give today’s Super Derby one of the best fields in its 11-year history.

When the 1 1/4-mile Super Derby was proposed for Louisiana Downs 11 years ago, the idea was to bring together the best 3-year-olds after they had run the Triple Crown races in the spring.

And for the first time, the race has landed two horses who won Triple Crown races. Their trainers expect a classic showdown.

“I don’t want to stick my neck out, but it almost seems to me that he likes this track better than any he’s been on,” said Neil Howard, trainer of 6-5 early line favorite Summer Squall, who galloped 1 1/2 miles Saturday morning.

Howard noted that Summer Squall has done about 80% of his training at Churchill Downs, and compared Louisiana Down’s surface favorably with that of the Kentucky track.

“It has more clay and is a little firmer than a lot of other tracks,” he said.

As for the race strategy that jockey Pat Day will follow, Howard said: “We’ll probably just lay off there during the early part and see what happens. Pat usually handicaps the race, so I won’t tell him much.”

Unbridled, the 5-2 early second choice, also galloped early Saturday, trainer Carl Nafzger said.

“There will be no excuses,” Nafzger said. “He has run on about nine tracks before. And we ran him on the turf the last time (in the Secretariat Stakes at Arlington) because I wanted to find out what I had.”

Nafzger called the field “well-balanced” and said four or five horses have a chance for a victory.

He said Southland-based Cee’s Tizzy, who has won impressively in California, and Stalwart Charger are major threats.

Much more than the $600,000 first-place money is at stake. Unbridled and Summer Squall are the leading candidates for 3-year-old of the year, and horse of the year wouldn’t be out of reach of the winner.

Unbridled won a stretch duel with Summer Squall to win the Kentucky Derby by 3 1/2 lengths. The order was reversed in the Preakness, with Summer Squall winning by 2 1/4 lengths at Pimlico.

Summer Squall was taken out of training after the Preakness, coming back to win the Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 3.

Given the credentials of the Triple Crown horses, it would be easy to overlook the others.

“It’s not a two-horse race,” Nafzeger said. “Look what happened in the Derby. Summer Squall and Mister Frisky got all the publicity, and Unbridled won.”