Aided by fine Florida weather, Maximum Security right on schedule for Derby

Trainer Jason Servis’s decision to keep Florida Derby winner Maximum Security in South Florida to train up to the Kentucky Derby certainly paid dividends on Sunday. Whereas two of the three scheduled Derby works at Churchill Downs were postponed on Easter Sunday due to weather and/or track conditions, Maximum Security got in his regularly scheduled one-mile breeze under “ideal” conditions, according to Servis by phone from the Palm Meadows training center later that morning.

As is the normal workout style for most of the horses under his care, Servis sent Maxiumum Security out to breeze a slow but steady mile, breaking off at the half-mile pole and finishing at the five-furlong marker.

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“It was a spectacular morning here, 59 degrees and crystal clear,” said Servis. “He went a good mile in 1:57 and out a mile and an eighth in 2:10. We’re just maintaining right now. My rider let him go a little faster rather than slower early and could have come home a little better, but in the end he still went in 1:57, which is what I wanted. He’ll do this again next Monday and we’ll back it down a little early and come home faster the last part. That will give him three open miles since his last start on the 30th. If he gets beat in the Derby, it won’t be because he’s not fit enough.”

Maximum Security is scheduled on an April 30 flight to Kentucky with four other potential Derby starters who are also still stabled in South Florida.

Conditions weren’t nearly as ideal at Churchill Downs on Sunday, with the temperature dipping into the high 30s at one point during training hours and with the racetrack, which was inundated by rain Friday and Saturday, obscured by fog for much of the morning.

As a result, trainers Bill Mott and Bret Calhoun opted to postpone scheduled works for Wood Memorial winner Tacitus and Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards, both of whom just galloped during the special session reserved for Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks horses between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. daily. UAE Derby winner Plus Que Parfait did breeze, appearing in maintenance mode coming through the wire while given no official time due to the foggy conditions.

“The track, mainly,” said Mott when asked what led to the decision to postpone Tacitus’s work until Monday. “The track is actually in fairly good shape this morning and we could have worked. But we’re under no pressure. Waiting one day is not an issue and I think we’ll have a super track tomorrow.”

Arkansas Derby winner Omaha Beach was the last of the locally based Kentucky Derby contenders to train on Sunday, coming out shortly after 9:30 a.m. to gallop an easy mile, in draw reins, and while sporting a brand new set of shoes. Trainer Richard Mandella was on hand for the session, which began just as the fog lifted over the local area.

– additional reporting by Nicole Russo