The Kentucky Derby workers were keeping busy recently as their connections tightened down the hatches on the stars in anticipation of the classic on May 6.
The $2 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs will have a full gate and the Kentucky Derby workers that were in action on Friday April 28 worked well for the most part.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion Classic Empire was well within himself during his :49.20 drill and he got his work in early. He was on the track at the crack of dawn for trainer Mark Casse and after getting his first quarter mile in :24.40, he worked in :49.20 before he galloped out in 1:03.
Casse, who is assisted by his son Norman, knows what to do with a good horse. He is an absolute legend in Canada as he was the outstanding trainer there for nine years. He has been the leading trainer at Woodbine a dozen times training champions like Sealy Hill, Uncaptured, Lexie Lou and Catch a Glimpse. He also trains the Eclipse Award winning turf mare Tepin. Casse has won three Breeders’ Cup races and used a baseball analogy after the work by Classic Empire, Casse: “His work gave me chills. Now it’s a waiting game. It’s all about timing. I said a couple months ago when everyone was giving us a tough time, this is like a baseball game. It doesn’t matter how many runs you score, it just matters if you’re ahead in the last inning. I feel like we have the bases loaded.”
It’s one thing having the bases loaded and quite another to hit it out of the park. For Casse, he has a horse that is thriving right now and timing, as we all know, is everything in life.
By being one of the most impressive Kentucky Derby workers, Classic Empire showed his innate ability. Besides winning five of his seven races, this runner has shown versatility and grit. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by being with the pace the entire race when never behind by more than a half-length and he won his last race coming from seventh. One of the most important things he has going for him is the affinity he has shown for Churchill Downs. He is unbeaten in his two Churchill Downs starts.
Casse also trains State of Honor and this was not one of the best Kentucky Derby workers. He was clocked in :48 4/5 in his final workout for the Derby and he will be a betting price as he has only won once in his career.
Prominent owners of horses are always dreaming of the Kentucky Derby and Todd Pletcher’s trainee Always Dreaming could cause nightmares for his rivals this year. Pletcher, as usual, is loaded for the Kentucky Derby with four likely entrants. The most sensational of the Kentucky Derby workers on Friday April 28 was Always Dreaming and he is coming to the race at the top of his game.
The son of Bodemeister led all four of the Pletcher contingent on Friday. What happens during workouts is that the first group of workers hit the track early and then at some point the track is spruced up again. That is called the renovation break. Always Dreaming was the first of the Kentucky Derby workers to go after the renovation break and he didn’t disappoint. He worked the first eighth of a mile in :13, got the quarter mile in :24.40 and three furlongs in :35.80. He was timed the half-mile in :47.60 and finished his 5-furlong work in :59.60. Stamina is obviously key to winning the Kentucky Derby and the way Always Dreaming galloped out should put him in a great position next week. It was the best of 35 works at the distance and the drill was ideal. Since winning the Florida Derby on April 1, Always Dreaming drilled two other times but this is the first time he was set down.
Pletcher also watched his runners Patch, Tapwrit and Battalion Runner go through their motions. Patch and Tapwrit were each clocked in 1:00 1/5. At the racetrack, everybody has positive information. All owners love their own horses and it’s a natural thing. So, when something negative seems to be in the air, that is more important information that positive information. Battalion Runner did not work as well as his stablemates. He finished over a second slower that Always Dreaming and sometimes honesty is the best policy. His trainer was honest, Pletcher: “He seemed to wrestle with the track. I thought the work was okay. It was not a bad work. A lot of times, the track you get a week before the Derby is not the same one you run on Derby Day. We will watch him the next week and see how he does.”
One of the other Kentucky Derby workers was Practical Joke. His trainer Chad Brown is trying to shake things up and he equipped Practical Joke with blinkers for the April 28 workout. The racer breezed outside his stablemate Bobby on Fleek and got his 5-furlongs in 1:01.60. This was an experiment for Brown as often in training it is about trial and error. Brown: “He worked well with the blinkers. He wasn’t too aggressive but he seemed a little more focused through the lane. He got away from his workmate in the gallop out, willingly, which we wanted to see. I was really pleased. We wanted to explore the small-cup blinker with him. I’ll think about it a little more but I’m leaning toward running him with them.”
Grade 2 winner Gunnevera was another solid one of the Kentucky Derby workers. Trained by Antonio Sano, Gunnevera got an easy 1:03.60 under his belt and seems to be coming to the race in good shape.
Remember, how runners are being brought up to the biggest day in their collective lives can play just as important as to how the race the first Saturday in May unfolds.
Coming to the Derby a horse cannot miss an oat in his meal in the mornings. His coat can’t be off, he can’t have a sniffle, he can’t take a bad step. It has to go just about perfectly for a win to materialize.
Caution must be used when evaluating responses from the conditioners. When listening to trainers speak as the Road to the Derby continues, try to read in between the lines. Some say trainers only lie when their mouths are moving, so put a grain of salt next to every time you hear the words, ‘we would not trade places with anybody’.
One of the many things that makes the Kentucky Derby so unique and iconic is these horses basically will be trying to go a furlong further than they ever have in their careers. This is a situation that is taxing not only for the horse, but because the connections don’t exactly know what is left in the tank.
