Derby shape should suit Upstart

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Upstart has a few white spots on his dark bay coat, but trainer Rick Violette maintains it’s not skin disease.

Violette says it’s a skin pigmentation that first showed up during the winter at Gulfstream Park. It was clearly evident in the days leading up to the Florida Derby, a race in which he finished second to Materiality.

“He had two or three times as many [spots] earlier this winter,” Violette said.

It certainly hasn’t affected the way Upstart runs. In January, he won the Holy Bull Stakes by 5 1/2 lengths. He came back in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, where though he finished first, he was disqualified and placed second behind Itsaknockout.

In the Florida Derby, he ran a solid second to Materiality over a deep, demanding surface.

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Violette felt that in both the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby, the horse he most feared was the horse on the lead and made for his jockey Jose Ortiz having to make an early move.

“The shape of the race, the dynamics of the race are going to be totally different than we’ve seen all winter,” Violette said. “In the Holy Bull, we didn’t have to pull the trigger until the middle of the turn, and we won by five. The next couple of races, we had to launch at the half-mile pole. While we sustained the run, it became a staggering run because of the racetrack. The one key horse was in front of us. That’s not going to happen here. The speed is going to have company, and we’re not going to have to be the first one to move, and I think that bodes well. If he can wait and be patient to make his move somewhere inside the half-mile pole, at the three-eighths pole that lets us run to the wire. The shape of the race will really be a lot better for him.”