ORB WINS KENTUCKY DERBY 139

Watch Orb winning the Kentucky Derby
(Image : AJC - Footage : Intangedous)

KENTUCKY DERBY (Grade 1)
Churchill Downs, Dirt, 2000m
4 May 2013

Hovering around as the second choice for most of the betting leading up to Saturday’s 139th Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, Stuart S. Janney III and Phipps Stable homebred Orb (Malibu Moon) garnered a flurry of late support to go off the public’s choice. That money proved the smart money as the 5-1 shot roared home in the slop to earn the roses by 2 1/2 lengths and provide Hall of Fame conditioner and Kentucky native Shug McGaughey with a first Derby. Unheralded 34-1 longshot Golden Soul (Perfect Soul) got up for a surprising second, while second choice Revolutionary (War Pass) got up for third under a patented rail-skimming ride from Calvin Borel to fill out the trifecta.

All besides Java’s War (War Pass) were away well, and Orb settled into rhythm well off the pace and in the two or three path. Meanwhile, Palace Malice (Curlin), a surprising pacesetter with first-time blinkers, zipped clear to set hot opening splits of :22.57 and :45.33 with a slew of horses in hot pursuit, including Palace Malice’s stablemate Verrazano (More Than Ready), Vyjack (Into Mischief), Goldencents (Into Mischief) and Oxbow (Awesome Again).

The leader started to come under a ride entering the home bend, and Normandy Invasion (Tapit) was the first to catch the eye with a sharp sweeping move. That runner hit the straight with the lead, but Orb was winding up after tipping into the six or seven path. He angled in slightly as Joel Rosario provided right-handed reminders, and drifted back out a bit as he blew by Normandy Invasion at the eighth pole. Nobody was getting to Orb at that point, and he bounded clear without having to empty the tank.

Golden Soul and Revolutionary also came from a similar place to Orb in the pack, with the latter leading the former up the inside turning for home. Robby Albarado on Golden Soul opted to come off the rail while Revolutionary stayed inside, but that additional ground covered by the runner-up didn’t cost him the placing.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

WAR PASS : On to the Kentucky Derby

War Pass (left) (Sarah Andrew) Eclipse Award winner War Pass (Cherokee Run), who gave way grudgingly to be second behind Tale of Ekati (Tale of the Cat) as the odds-on choice in Saturday’s Gr1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, came out of the race in good order and will head to Churchill Downs for the May 3 Gr1 Kentucky Derby. “It was the only big race that I finished second in that I appreciated it as a win,” trainer Nick Zito said. “He ran as tough as he could and showed what kind of horse he is, especially the way the race shaped up.” Nick Zito added, “Obviously this sets him up great for the Kentucky Derby. He got nothing out of his race in Tampa, so he needed this.”

Tale of Ekati headed to Keeneland Saturday night and was none the worse for the wear after his busy day, according to trainer Barclay Tagg. “He came with me last night and everything is right,” said Barclay Tagg. “He’s going into the Kentucky Derby the right way.”

Barclay Tagg also has Kentucky Derby candidates Elysium Fields (El Prado {Ire}) and Big Truck (Hook and Ladder) in the barn, and added, “I will say this: I wouldn’t trade my three for any others going into the Kentucky Derby.” The conditioner is looking at Saturday’s Gr1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes or Gr2 Arkansas Derby for the pair.

Click here to watch the video of TALE OF EKATI winning the Wood Memorial Stakes 2008 

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News 

WAR PASS - KENTUCKY DERBY Picture Unclear

War Pass (brisnet) Nominal Kentucky Derby favourite War Pass suffered his first defeat in seven starts at the weekend creating confusion and doubt as the Run To The Roses gathers pace. War Pass was sent out a 1-9 favourite in the G3 Tampa Bay Derby in Florida, but finished last to the Barclay Tagg-trained Big Truck.

Click here to watch the Tampa Bay Derby 2008.

Tagg freely admitted he had instructed jockey Eibar Coa to ride for second place in the 1700m race. “I thought we were he second best horse,” Tagg said. Whether that is the case remains uncertain after War Pass clearly raced well below his best, despite missing the start and suffering mild interference soon after.

Trainer Nick Zito said his colt had found itself in unfamiliar territory after having led at each of his previous six wins. But he also acknowledged that when War Pass was asked to do something he failed to respond.

Big Truck came from the back of the eight-horse field to wear down runner-up Atoned to score by a neck with Dynamic Wayne in third place. If War Pass’s defeat is taken as a sign to dismiss him from Derby calculations, the win of Georgie Boy in the G2 San Felipe at Santa Anita could rule him in.

Georgie Boy scored his third consecutive victory since taking last summer’s G1 Del Mar Futurity. While he was regarded more as a sprinting type prior to his win in the 1700m contest, Georgie Boy now looks capable of stretching out to the 2000m at Churchill Downs.

A decision is yet to be made on a lead up to the Kentucky Derby which rests between either the G1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5 or the G2 Arkansas Derby a week later. The weekend’s other significant pointer came in an ungraded race in New Mexico where Liberty Bull took out the US$600,000 WinStar Derby on Sunday.

While the race was worth twice that of the Tampa Bay Derby, because it was ungraded it won’t count toward the colt’s qualification for the Kentucky Derby. Liberty Bull, nevertheless appears to have improved since finishing third behind Denis of Cork and Sierra Sunset in the G3 Southwest Stakes at his previous run.

Extract by Mike Hedge from Stallions Daily Bulletin

NICK ZITO : War Pass and Cool Coal Man for Kentucky Derby

War Pass (thoroughbredphotos)A facile seven-and-a-half length victory by last year’s Champion Stateside juvenile, War Pass (in what was admittedly a confidence-boosting allowance race in which he started at odds of 1-20), capped a memorable day for trainer Nick Zito and owner Robert LaPenta who find themselves with two of the favourites for the Kentucky Derby.

In the previous race, the same combination saw Cool Coal Man cause a minor upset in the Grade Two Fountain of Youth Stakes; a win that put him in line to become the first winner since Thunder Gulch in 1995 to win there and then take the Kentucky Derby.

Click here to watch the Fountain Of Youth Stakes 2008.

Only Zito will know deep down which of these (or even the promising Fierce Wind whom he handles for a different owner) is the more likely to land the Roses in May (he’s hinted the two unlikely to take each other on before then and will probably run just the once before Churchill Downs), but it must be a remarkably good feeling to have a barn that contains such sophomore talent in the early part of the year.

About War Pass, Zito said: “He’s unbelievable. That’s what we wanted for him. Three weeks from now (in the Tampa Bay Derby on 15 March), it will be a little tougher.”

War Pass, of course, is a horse whose future is already known, irrespective of what happens this spring and early summer. The son of Cherokee Run has a brass nameplate being polished for him at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky where he will stand upon his retirement.

Whether that deal, which was announced in November after his heroics in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, will have any affect on how his connections manage his campaign this year will be interesting to observe. A leading Graded-Stakes victory as a three-year-old will obviously do no harm to an already stellar Curriculum Vitae but that will not necessarily need to be the Kentucky Derby - and all the pressure such a race brings with it; especially if the barn has other stars with fewer miles on their legs and Stallion barns still to find.

Not that Cool Coal Man will struggle to find offers of a retirement home. He is by the highly desirable Lane’s End sire Mineshaft and his Fountain of Youth win was a fourth in a short career which has already seen him amass more than $300,000.

Cool Coal Man is a Lane’s End sales graduate purchased by LaPenta for $200,000 as a yearling. LaPenta thought enough of Cool Coal Man that he opted to buy back the colt for $850,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton breeze-up sale in Florida. The win on Sunday already makes that look like a piffling amount of loose change.

Out of the five-time winning Rubiano mare, Coral Sea, Cool Coal Man also has a half-sister of Stakes standard running this year in the shape of the Lemon Drop Kid filly, Kathleens Reel whose sister Lemon Queen was placed in France. The immediate family appears adroit at producing runners around the world (Coral Sea has produced winners in Japan and England) but it is Coral Sea’s dam, South Sea Dancer, who will be of greater interest to pedigree enthusiasts and potential stallion managers: she is a sister to Champion filly Northernette and, even more significantly, the influential sire Storm Bird.

Extract from Thoroughbred Internet

The Breeders' Cup World Championship of Racing: A bit of a damp squib

                                                            Curlin (Charles Pravata-Horsephotos)

Bucketing rain turned the racing surface for the Breeder’s Cup Championship event at Monmouth Park into something resembling more of a swimming pool than a racetrack, and the results unfortunately reflected the lack of predictability that inevitably emerges in these conditions.

The first major upsets occurred when Dylan Thomas, a four-time Group 1 winner this season, and the outstanding Champion of Europe, failed to get a place in the major Turf event, while the Classic itself, billed as one of the races of the decade, turned into very much a procession for CURLIN, who obviously adapted best to the conditions, but who had been comfortably bested by the likes of Street Sense and Any Given Saturday in earlier encounters.

Watch the Breeder’s Cup Classic (Gr1) 2007.

Get a spectator’s view from Monmouth Park grandstand.