Cutting Humor holds on to win Sunland Park Derby

Cutting Humor held off a fast-closing Anothertwistafate by a neck to win the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby – and 50 points for the Kentucky Derby – in track-record time Sunday.

Mucho Gusto, the 4-5 favorite from the rail, was pressured through demanding fractions and finished third, 5 3/4 lengths behind Anothertwistafate. It was another 1 1/2 lengths back to Wicked Indeed in fourth. The second- through fourth-place finishers also earned Kentucky Derby points on a scale of 20-10-5.

Cutting Humor covered 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:46.94. It was announced as a track record, eclipsing the 1:47.21 mark that Oh So Regal set last April in the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap. Oh So Regal was 4 and won by four lengths under 118 pounds. Cutting Humor carried 122 on Sunday.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said following the race that plans for Cutting Humor are to be determined. He said that while the horse’s connections are pleased to have the points for the Kentucky Derby, the focus was on trying to win the Sunland Derby. He wants to get the horse back home to Florida, evaluate him out of the race, then make a plan with owners Starlight Racing. Cutting Humor flies back home Wednesday.

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Cutting Humor ($6.60) came into the Sunland Derby off a troubled seventh-place finish in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Feb. 18 at Oaklawn. He was bumped soundly and carried out in the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race, but things went much smoother on Sunday, said Pletcher.

Cutting Humor was content to sit in fourth, just behind Mucho Gusto, who raced through an opening quarter in 22.76 seconds, a half-mile in 45.63, and six furlongs in 1:09.63 while pressured by Hustle Up. Cutting Humor advanced three wide on the final turn, moved to the fore at the quarter pole and pushed past Mucho Gusto in the stretch. The winner then held off Anothertwistafate.

“As soon as he found himself on the lead, he idled,” winning rider John Velazquez said in a post-race interview during the simulcast from Sunland. “I said, ‘C’mon, get your mind back on running.’ ”

Velazquez said he switched to a left-handed stick with Cutting Humor.

“He went on about his business again,” he said. “The way he ran today was very good.”

Pletcher and Velazquez said they were pleased to have a clean trip Sunday.

“I thought he ran super,” Pletcher said. “Johnny was able to get him in a comfortable position early on and get into a good rhythm. After the issues he had in the first turn of the Southwest, which compromised any chance he had of winning that day, a good, comfortable rhythm was what we were hoping for.”

Cutting Humor earned $460,800 for the win, his second from six starts. It came in his second stakes appearance, following a maiden special weight win at Gulfstream Park West in November and a runner-up finish in a first-level allowance to launch his 3-year-old season in January at Gulfstream Park.

Cutting Humor is a son of First Samurai and was bred in Kentucky by Dell Hancock and Bernie Sams.

It was the first Sunland Derby win for Starlight Racing, Pletcher, and Velazquez.