Art Collector looks to confirm Kentucky Derby destiny in Ellis Park Derby

When 2020 began, it would have been impossible to conjure the Ellis Park Derby as a stepping-stone to the Kentucky Derby – just as Tommy Drury was oblivious to having a top Kentucky Derby hopeful in his barn.

But when Art Collector goes postward as a heavy favorite Sunday in the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, the reality of this bizarre year will start sinking in even further for Drury.

“If I told you I was thinking Kentucky Derby when I first got him, I’d be lying to you,” Drury said.

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Art Collector, with Brian Hernandez Jr. to ride, will break from post 4 as part of a full gate of 12 3-year-olds in the 1 1/8-mile Ellis Derby. Following the Travers on Saturday and preceding the Aug. 15 Pegasus at Monmouth, the Ellis Derby is the penultimate qualifying race toward the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, with points assigned on a 50-20-10-5 basis.

Art Collector doesn’t need any more points to make the 20-horse Derby cutoff, having earned 100 points in a 3 1/4-length breakthrough victory last month over the standout filly Swiss Skydiver in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, but Drury believes the timing and other circumstances of the Ellis Derby are ideal.

“The Blue Grass, he had to earn it,” Drury said. “That filly made him work for it. Watching that race and evaluating the race afterward, I felt one more was going to be beneficial to him. I’m just really thankful that spot at Ellis is available. We were late getting to the party and we’ve needed every little thing to fall in place to get him to this point. For Ellis to have a Derby prep this year was a lifesaver to us.”

Bred and owned by Louisville health-care magnate Bruce Lunsford, Art Collector has used a terrific turn of foot in winning all three starts since Drury assumed his care over the winter. Surely Hernandez will call on that speed early in this race, run around one lap of the 1 1/8-mile main track, before allowing the Bernardini colt to settle into a comfortable stride.

“Our game plan certainly is not going to change,” said Drury, who is based primarily at the Skylight training center east of Louisville but has used Churchill Downs when breezing Art Collector the last two months.

“We want this race to be a stepping-stone for the next one. I’d love to see him go down there and get a good, clean, easy trip wherever he may finish, and then be able to move forward from that race.”

In the July 11 Blue Grass, Art Collector stalked Swiss Skydiver from a close-up position before pulling away in the final furlong. A similar scenario seems entirely possible here, with longshots Truculent and the Steve Asmussen pair of Little Menace and Rowdy Yates among those who could provide the targets for the 4-5 morning-line choice.

A couple of rivals who have already won a derby this year – Dean Martini upset the June 27 Ohio Derby at 14-1 and Shared Sense captured the July 8 Indiana Derby – could prove the top threats to Art Collector.

Dean Martini (post 9, James Graham) was claimed three starts back by trainer Tom Amoss. The Cairo Prince gelding is not nominated to the Triple Crown, so he most likely will have to win Sunday for his ownership partners to consider supplementing him to the Kentucky Derby, Amoss said.

“You’ve got a really strong favorite in this race,” he said. “I think everyone will measure the quality of their horse with how they perform against him.”

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The late-running Shared Sense (post 12, Florent Geroux), “is a very hard-trying horse,” Cox said.

“We’ll go in there hoping for the best,” he said, “even though Art Collector is a very deserving favorite.”

The Ellis Derby is the last of 10 races on a Sunday card that starts at 12:50 p.m. Central. Four other stakes, all worth $100,000, precede it – the Juvenile (race 4), the Debutante (race 6), the Audubon Oaks (race 8), and the Groupie Doll (race 9).

Post time for the Ellis Derby is 5:10, meaning it will be run 10 minutes after the seventh and final pool in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager closes. Art Collector, Dean Martini, and Shared Sense are among the 23 separately listed interests in Pool 7.

Spectators are being permitted to attend the Ellis races amid the ongoing global pandemic, although tickets must be purchased in advance through ellisparkracing.com. Mostly sunny skies and a high of 87 are in the local forecast for Sunday.

This is just the third running of the Ellis Derby. The first two were run at a mile and were won by Believe in Royalty (2018) and Gray Magician (2019).