Brotha Keny rallies from last to win Zia Park Derby
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Brotha Keny continued his highly productive 3-year-old season Tuesday, when he rallied for a half-length win over Zero Sugar in the $300,000 Zia Park Derby. It was another nose back in third to Remember Big Jim.
The win came two starts after Brotha Keny captured the Bourbon Flight Stakes in September at Churchill Downs. Over the summer, he ran third in both the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby and Grade 3 Indiana Derby.
“He’s really come around since midsummer,” winning trainer Bill Morey said. “We always liked him and we were patient with him, and he finally came around for us.”
The Zia Derby anchored the annual $1.1 million Land of Enchantment card. There were seven stakes on the program that included the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks won by A Thousand Miles ($14.20).
Brotha Keny ($6.80) trailed the field on Tuesday as Mister Omaha set fractions of 23.72 seconds for the opening quarter and 47.73 for the half-mile while pushed along by Zero Sugar and Remember Big Jim. The latter took the lead through six furlongs in 1:12.07 as Brotha Keny was winding up. Brotha Keny advanced on the final turn, came six wide into the stretch, and closed with good energy to cover 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:44.
Joe Ramos was aboard, reuniting with the horse he had regularly ridden at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Brotha Kenny came into the Zia Derby off a fourth-place finish in a three-other-than allowance against older horses at Keeneland.
“Last time in the race at Keeneland, when he got out in the clear, he kind of ran off and made an early move and then that cost us late,” Morey said. “So today, I asked Joe to try to keep him covered up. He was covered up behind horses and then when he put him out in the running, he had enough to run them all down.”
Morey said Brotha Keny would now return to his home base of Turfway Park.
“We’ll just get home and re-evaluate, make sure he comes out of the race good,” he said. “We really didn’t have our sights on anything past this race. We had our sights on today for now.”
Brotha Kenny is a son of Mo Town who races for Lance Kinross and Steve Kinross. He has won 4 of 13 starts for career earnings of $499,528.
Racing resumes Friday at Zia.
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