Trainer Todd Pletcher had a much quieter morning Sunday after Saturday’s
hustle and bustle in which he worked five Derby candidates and four Oaks
hopefuls on the Churchill Downs strip.
Sunday, as a few light showers danced in and out of the Louisville, Kentucky,
area, the conditioner sent his Derby contingent back to the track for one-mile
jogs under their regular exercise riders. Heavy rains had been expected to hit
Saturday and then Sunday morning, but that proved to not be true, which provided
advantages.
“We were a bit surprised and pleased by the weather and the condition of the
track this morning,” Pletcher said. “They both were better than we thought and
that’s why we went back out there with the horses.”
Jogging for the five-time Eclipse Award-winning conditioner Sunday were
possible Derby favorite Verrazano, Louisiana Derby
winner Revolutionary, Arkansas Derby winner Overanalyze, Blue Grass Stakes
runner-up Palace Malice, Blue Grass Stakes third-place-finisher Charming
Kitten and Lexington Stakes hero Winning Cause.
Winning Cause is slated to work Monday, after which a final decision on his
possible Kentucky Derby status may become clearer.
The trainer indicated that his
one-two finishers in Saturday night’s Derby Trial — Forty Tales and Capo Bastone — were “very unlikely” to be given Derby consideration.
“We’ll just play it by ear now for
the rest of the week,” Pletcher said. “Everybody is doing fine and we’d like to
keep it that way.”
In other Kentucky Derby news:
Walking and grazing were the order of business
Sunday for Fox Hill Farms’ Wood Memorial runner-up Normandy Invasion.
The Tapit colt had a typical light day after working five furlongs in
:59 Saturday.
“He came out of his breeze bouncing around. I’m real happy,” trainer Chad
Brown said. “We walked him for about 40 minutes in the shedrow and then got him
out there on the grass for a half-hour. He’s full of himself, so I’m real happy
how he took his breeze.”
Brown said the colt will trot on the track Monday morning.
Gold Mark Farm and Whisper Hill Farm’s Mylute walked the
shedrow at Barn 29 one morning after his final Derby tune up — an easy
half-mile move in :50 3/5 for Tom Amoss.
“To use trainer parlance, ‘It was just what we wanted,'” Amoss said, knowingly
employing one of the greatest hits from the Trainer Interview Clichés catalog.
“It was just an easy work. Tomorrow he’s going to jog, maybe make a trip to the
paddock. He’ll just gallop into the race with probably a day of schooling in the
starting gate, probably Thursday during the races.”
Amoss showed off the handsome Midnight Lute colt while emphasizing that
he could not be doing better coming into the Derby.
“He’s got a lot of body to him and he’s just a pretty horse,” Amoss said. “Most
people don’t realize he’s gray because he’s so dark.”
The Louisiana Derby runner-up will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik,
racing’s current breakout star, who was to be featured in a 60 Minutes profile
airing Sunday evening. Napravnik was aboard Mylute for a 10-plus-length
allowance win at Fair Grounds in December but was otherwise committed for both
of his starts in 2013, when he was piloted by Shaun Bridgmohan.
“Rosie rode Mylute to his most recent win,” Amoss said. “Shaun did nothing
wrong; the ownership just decided that Rosie would be the right pilot.”
Those hoping for a juicy price on a live longshot, though, should
anticipate the horse being bet down by Napravnik’s growing fanbase, especially
in light of her recent mainstream media attention, including a New York Times
Magazine profile. The first time Rosie had a Derby mount, aboard Pants
on
Fire in 2011, she went off as the 8-1 second choice despite a 20-1 morning line.
“I think the ‘Rosie Effect’ puts Mylute somewhere around 15-1 instead of the
25-1 or 30-1 he should be,” Amoss said.
Pick Six Racing’s Gotham winner Vyjack had some light
exercise and visited the paddock and starting gate under trainer Rudy
Rodriguez Sunday morning.
The gelding worked Friday, walked
Saturday and entered Derby week with another non-taxing morning.
“A little jogging, a little schooling
and freshening him up a little bit,” Rodriguez said.
Vyjack spent very little time on the
track during the period reserved for Derby and Oaks horses at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).
“I jogged to the gap and stood him
there for a little bit, took him to the paddock and walked around there a few
times,” Rodriguez said. “He looked like he was happy and enjoying himself. He
came out of there feeling good. Then I took him to the gate. He stood there then
they backed him up and put him back in. Everything was very good.”
Rodriguez said all the pre-Derby
preparations are going smoothly.
“So far, so good,” he said. “I
wish the race was tomorrow.”
Newtown Anner Stud, James Covello and Joseph Bulger’s Falling
Sky walked the shedrow of Barn 36 at Churchill Downs Sunday morning, two days
after turning in a five-furlong bullet breeze in :59 3/5. The John Terranova-trained colt had returned to the track on Saturday for a mile gallop
on the morning after his breeze.
“Sometimes we’ll do that with certain horses. It depends on the horse,”
Terranova said. “With the weather situation here, we weren’t sure there wasn’t
going to be a washout today, so we decided Sunday was going to be a day off.
Originally, we had planned on breezing Saturday, so it would have been that way
anyway.”
Falling Sky, who captured the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs with a
front-running performance, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Arkansas
Derby, in which he set a pressured pace. The son of Lion Heart is expected
to be forwardly placed in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
“I’d just like to see him comfortable wherever he’s going to be, whether it’s on
the lead or close. Knowing him, he’s going to be forwardly placed. There’s no
getting around that fact,” Terranova said.
Falling Sky does not need the lead to run his best race, Terranova said.
“Obviously, he has that natural speed to him, but I don’t think he’s a rank type
of horse. He’s never shown us he’s been a rank-type speed. He’s been able to
relax on the lead.
Sterling Racing’s Black Onyx walked the shedrow at Barn 41 the
morning after working a half-mile in :48 3/5. Exercise rider Aurelio
Gomez reported that the Spiral Stakes winner came out of the work “good” and
likely would return to the track Monday during the portion of training hours
dedicated to Derby and Oaks contenders from 8:30 to 8:45 a.m.
Magic City Thoroughbred Partners’ Frac Daddy and Charles Fipke’s Java’s War walked the shedrow at trainer Ken
McPeek’s Barn 6 the morning after their final official works in advance of the
Kentucky Derby.
“Everything’s in order,” assistant trainer Phil Bauer said. “We got through
another day. We’re one day closer and everybody looks good this morning.”
Frac Daddy, the Arkansas Derby runner-up, and Java’s War, winner of the Blue
Grass, are expected to return to the track Monday during the
Derby and Oaks training session.
Trainer Dallas Stewart remained hopeful Sunday that Fipke’s Golden Soul, the
fourth-place finisher in the Louisiana Derby, would
be able to draw into the body of the Kentucky Derby field. The colt ranks
23rd on the Derby leaderboard, and though it appeared Sunday that defections are
possible and Golden Soul might reach the top 20, Stewart didn’t want to talk
about such matters.
“It’s Sunday we don’t enter till Wednesday,” Stewart said. “We don’t make no
predictions. We’ll just be ready if we get the chance.”
If Golden Soul gets into the race, Stewart would be participating in his third
Derby as a head trainer. Kimberlite Pipe finished sixth for Stewart in 1996, 2
3/4
lengths behind winner Charismatic. Stewart’s other starter was Dollar Bill, who
finished 15th in 2001.
“Kimberlite Pipe ran well,” Stewart said. “Dollar Bill got in some
trouble. Charismatic won that year,”
As an assistant for D. Wayne Lukas, Stewart played a part in Derby victories
by Winning Colors (1988), Thunder Gulch (1995) and Grindstone (1996).
Golden Soul jogged Sunday in his first day back on the track after working
Friday.
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