135th Kentucky Derby
Celebrities at the Derby
Scenes from the Derby infield
Rachel Alexandra romps in Kentucky Oaks
By Alicia Winze of the Lexington Herald-Leader
LOUISVILLE — Of all the queries thrown at the connections of Rachel Alexandra this past week, one set of questions kept coming up.
What would happen if the time ever came when jockey Calvin Borel actually had to ask the filly to try?
What would be the result if the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, a multiple winner of graded stakes, found herself challenged and had to dig into her well of ability?
That managed to stump virtually everyone close to the bay filly. And in the aftermath of the 135th Kentucky Oaks, it’s a subject that remains thoroughly unresolved.
In an effort as stirring as anything witnessed under the Twin Spires, superfilly Rachel Alexandra left six rivals flailing and 104,867 fans breathless as she skipped to 201/4-length in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks — the largest margin of victory the race has ever seen.
Although few expected the Oaks to be little more than a coronation for racing’s newest queen, the ridiculous ease of Rachel Alexandra’s latest effort left even her firmest supports stunned.
After rating just off the flank of pacesetter Gabby’s Golden Gal down the backstretch, the long-striding filly cruised up under her own power around the final turn and had Borel in full celebration mode before she even hit the sixteenth pole.
Despite coming home in little more than a gallop, Rachel Alexandra’s final time of 1:48.87 for the 1 1/8-mile race was just off the stakes record of 1:48.64 set by Bird Town in 2003.
“She’s the best horse I’ve ever been on and she proved it today,” a beaming Borel said. “Street Sense (the 2007 Kentucky Derby winner) was a great horse and had one turn of foot but … I’ve never been on a horse this good.
“Until I really have to get down and ask her, I don’t know how good she is.”
Remarkably, Rachel Alexandra began her career by losing three of her first five starts. But since she won the Grade II Golden Rod at Churchill by 4 3/4-lengths last fall, no one has come within sniffing distance of co-owner Dolphus Morrison’s homebred filly.
In her four starts prior to the Oaks, Rachel Alexandra had won by a combined total of 23 1/4 lengths including an 8 3/4-length stroll in the Grade II Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn on April 5.
“Calvin tells me he’s never asked her to run and he doesn’t know what’s going to happen when he does,” said trainer Hal Wiggins, who earned his first Oaks triumph. “It’s overwhelming really. She’s getting better and better all the time.”
Stone Legacy, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, got up for second in the Oaks with Flying Spur coming home third.
Justwhistledixie, the second choice in the morning line at 5-2, was scratched earlier in the day with an abscess in her left front foot.
Rachel Alexandra’s rapid ascent is especially poignant considering the decades of dedication that went into making her success.
For 30 years, Wiggins has trained for Morrison in a partnership based as much on loyalty as it is respect. Though the two have brought up some solid stakes winners — including Rachel Alexandra’s dam, Lotta Kim — the Oaks marked the first Grade I triumph for both men.
“I’ve had some lucrative offers to move horses to other people … but I like to stick with the people I’m doing business with if they’re doing the job,” Morrison said of Wiggins. “He’s just a great person.”
Though offers came in to buy Rachel Alexandra last year, Morrison ultimately only sold half of her to partner Mike Lauffer just before her Golden Rod triumph.
“If I had any inkling to know what she would turn out to be, I wouldn’t have sold any of her,” Morrison joked.
But in earning her latest triumph, Rachel Alexandra has given everyone around her a reward they didn’t dare fathom.
“Unless you have loved someone with your entire heart and watched them go through bad times and good times … I cannot express what this means,” said Renee Wiggins, who has been married to her husband for more than 40 years. “It means more than anything in the world to me to see him getting the accolades that he has worked so hard for.
“Rachel Alexandra is really a gift from God and we are very thankful for it.”
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Slide show: Kentucky Derby countdown: 2 Days
WinStar Farm’s Mr. Hot Stuff gallops, Dunkirk grazes with two days to go till Kentucky Derby 135.
Seven Derby horses do their final work at Churchill
Monday morning was busy as seven Kentucky Derby contenders worked in beautiful weather at Churchill Downs. Photos by Mark Cornelison | Staff
Dubai’s back and better than ever
By John Clay, Herald-Leader Sports Columnist
LOUISVILLE — Welcome back.
From 1999 through 2002, Godolphin Racing took four straight unsuccessful shots at achieving Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s goal of winning the Kentucky Derby, leaving the Ruler of Dubai to vow he would keep coming back until he won the sport’s most prestigious race.
Then six Derbys passed without a Godolphin runner.
Now, they’re back.
“I think what we have this year is much better than what we saw in the past,” said Saeed bin Suroor, Godolphin’s 43-year-old trainer.
It was Saturday morning, just after Desert Party, the second of his two Derby probables, had worked 5 furlongs in :593⁄5. About two hours earlier, Regal Ransom had turned in a bullet work of :591⁄5 over the same distance.
“They’re traveling very well from Dubai,” said an obviously happy bin Suroor.
No one doubts Sheik Mohammed’s commitment to the Thoroughbred industry. But many question his philosophy of purchasing American horses, and returning them to his home country before shipping them to Louisville for the first Saturday in May, with little to show for it.
Godolphin made its Derby debut in 1999, only to see Worldly Manner finish seventh. The stable’s double shot of China Visit and Curule ran sixth and seventh, respectively, in 2000. Express Tour ran eighth in 2001. Essence of Dubai, a $2.3 million Sheik Mohammed purchase, ran ninth in 2002.
In 2005, when Godolphin was prepping Blues and Royal for a possible trip to Louisville, racing legend Andy Beyer wrote, “the colt’s chances of earning a blanket of roses on May 7 are negligible, for he is likely to be doomed by the arrogance and poor judgement of his owner.”
This year, however, bin Suroor believes his stock is different.
“At least they have three runs in Dubai,” said the trainer on Saturday. “They are going to the race with no excuse. Evidence, so far, they’ve done really good. Based off their works today, very good times. That makes me really happy with them. Just we need luck.”
Sheik Mohammed hasn’t had the best luck. He purchased Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman in the Bob McNair dispersal sale, only to see the 3-year-old drop off the Derby trail in February with a foreleg injury. Sheik Mohammed also paid $12 million last November for Vineyard Haven, only to see the Hopeful and Champagne winner run poorly in Dubai.
Regal Ransom has run well, winning the UAE Derby last time out. The son of Distorted Humor, sire of 2003 Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, ran eighth in the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita before being shipped for his three races in Dubai.
But many say Desert Party is Godolphin’s best shot. The son of Street Cry was a $2.1 million Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-olds in training purchase. He won the Sanford at Saratoga but finished sixth in the Hopeful. He had beaten Regal Ransom in a pair of Dubai races before finishing second to his stablemate in the UAE Derby. Those two ran 15 lengths ahead of the rest of the field.
“Before the race, when I saddled him, he was quiet,” said bin Suroor, speaking of Desert Party in the UAE Derby. “I didn’t think that was his day.”
Saturday could be.
“I don’t guarantee that we are going to win, but at least we have the horses that are going the right way,” said the trainer. “Just we need luck. The Kentucky Derby is the best and hardest race in the world.”
Both are why Godolphin is back for another try.
“We’re always going to try,” said bin Suroor, “and maybe one day we will win it.”
Reach John Clay at 859-231-3226 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3226, or jclay@herald-leader.com. Read his blog at Kentucky.com.
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Crack forces Quality Road out of the Derby
By Alicia Wincze of the Lexington Herald-Leader
Florida Derby winner Quality Road, who was expected to be one of the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, will miss the race because of continued problems with a quarter-crack on his right front hoof, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Monday morning at Belmont Park.
Jerkens had hoped to put a final workout into the colt Monday over Belmont Park’s training track, but the quarter-crack did not respond well enough to treatment to go ahead with the breeze, which had already been postponed.
Quality Road, with jockey John R. Velazquez up, heads toward the finish line to win the Florida Derby horse race at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. on March 28, 2009. File photo.by Adam Coglianese | Associated Press
“It’s not terribly bad but it’s not right,” said Jerkens, who trains Quality Road for owner and breeder Edward P. Evans. “He’s really sensitive on the quarter.”
Quality Road, who overcame a different quarter-crack on his right hind foot suffered during his track-record victory in the Florida Derby on March 28, developed this injury late last week. An acrylic patch was applied by hoof specialist Ian McKinlay on Sunday morning, but the colt subsequently returned from a gallop with a tinge of blood. Although treated with a drying agent and an antiseptic for 24 hours thereafter, the hoof was still sensitive Monday morning, and plans to travel to Churchill Downs were scrapped.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Evans, who was at Belmont Park. “The Preakness and the Belmont are possibilities.”
Trainer Bob Baffert, who conditions top Derby contender Pioneerof the Nile, said he believed Quality Road was the main threat for the first Saturday of May.
“To me, he was the horse to beat, he is a really good horse,” Baffert said. “It’s a shame because you don’t get too many chances with a good horse to come to the Derby and I really feel for them.”
Musket Man defies sprinter label
Musket Man, with jockey Eibar Coa, worked over the Churchill Downs surface last week. The pair combined to win the Grade II Illinois Derby on April 4. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
LOUISVILLE — For the last several months, trainer Derek Ryan has repeatedly been reminded why his Kentucky Derby contender Musket Man shouldn’t be in his current position.
There was no way, critics argued, a horse with his sprinter-laden pedigree would ever be able to successfully stretch out.
Even after notching two graded stakes wins beyond a mile, more than one person has mentioned to Ryan his first ever Derby hopeful is hardly bred to handle the 11/4-mile distance.
While many like to judge Musket Man solely on his bloodlines, Ryan is basing his opinion on what he actually sees in front of him.
Regardless of where he finishes in the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 2, Musket Man has already bucked some significant odds merely by getting to the first leg of the Triple Crown.
His sire, Grade I winner Yonaguska, never won beyond 7 furlongs, and his dam, Fortuesque, was a sprint-specialist that never won beyond 61/2 furlongs in a 17-race career.
Special horses can often outrun whatever limitations their pedigrees may put on them, and Ryan says Musket Man is such a horse.
The versatile colt has quietly won five of his six career starts, including a surging, 2-length triumph in the Grade II, 11⁄8-mile Illinois Derby on April 4.
“They said he couldn’t win going 11⁄16 miles (in the Grade III Tampa Bay Derby on March 14) and he won that,” Ryan said. “Then he wins at 11⁄8 miles and they say ‘Oh it was a bad race.’ They can say what they say but they don’t know this horse.
“Last year, they said Big Brown didn’t have the pedigree and (2004 Derby winner) Smarty Jones wasn’t supposed to go a mile and a quarter so I don’t listen to all that.”
Even before Musket Man made his first career start last October, Ryan had a feeling the colt could end up proving a lot of naysayers wrong.
Though good natured around the barn, Ryan saw the colt — who is a May foal — turn into another animal the minute he had a target in front of him.
“Training-wise, when he gallops, he’s laid back, but as soon as you put him on the rail and work him in company he’s like the Energizer Bunny,” said Ryan, a native of Ireland who has been training on his own since 1996. “He’ll gallop around half asleep but you give him something to chase, he’ll go get ‘em. He’s shown a lot of class from day one.”
After winning his first three career starts, Musket Man hit his first bump in the road when he was a well-beaten third in his first try around two turns, the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 14.
While some interpreted that defeat as a sign of his bloodlines catching up to him, his connections knew the loss was more a function of mental immaturity than physical fatigue.
“It was his first time around two turns and after that first turn I guess he thought his race was over,” co-owner Eric Fein said after his Tampa Bay Derby triumph. “(Ryan) has done an unbelievable job with him.”
Though he has had his best success rating relatively close to the pace, Musket Man showed he could adjust to unforeseen circumstances when he was forced to make a five-wide move to win the Tampa Bay Derby after getting shuffled back to eighth.
It may shock some if Musket Man finds a few extra furlongs of fight in him this Saturday, but don’t count Ryan among the surprised if it happens.
“We’ve been hearing about the distance since (his maiden win) in October,” Ryan said. “Hopefully after next weekend they’ll be wondering if he can go 11/2 miles (in the Belmont Stakes).”
