Distance the biggest factor for Illinois Derby runners
Post position isn’t meaningless in the Illinois Derby, but the starting stalls assigned Wednesday to the eight horses entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 race should not make or break a runner’s chances. More important is the race’s 1 1/8-mile distance. The nine-furlong trip affords jockeys ample time to find position before the first turn. It will be first race that far for six of the horses entered to run, and the distance just might push up against stamina limitations of the presumed favorite, the Bob Baffert-trained Midnight Hawk.
Midnight Hawk drew post 3 with Martin Garcia booked to ride, and Midnight Hawk is most definitely the name horse in the Illinois Derby. He’s started five times, won twice, finished second twice, and was third once, and his last four starts have come in graded stakes competition. But in all three of his races beyond one mile, Midnight Hawk has lost ground from the stretch call to the finish wire – and the Hawthorne homestretch is among the longest in the country.
The full Illinois Derby field, from inside out with riders, includes Dynamic Impact (Miguel Mena), A Step Ahead (Chris Emigh), Midnight Hawk, Irish You Well (Channing Hill), King Cyrus (Rosie Napravnik), Emmett Park (Lori Wydick), Global Strike (Tim Thornton), and Class Leader (James Graham).
Global Strike, one of two Todd Pletcher-trained horses along with King Cyrus, was supplemented into the race Wednesday for $10,000, but both he and Dynamic Impact were cross-entered in the $200,000 Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.
No horse in the race seems better suited to a longer journey than Class Leader, who won two route races at Fair Grounds this past winter after finishing sixth last fall at Churchill Downs sprinting in his career debut. Bred and owned by the Lane’s End Farm of Will Farish, Class Leader is by Smart Strike and out of the Kris S. mare Class Kris.
“I do think the mile and an eighth should be really suitable for him,” said trainer Neil Howard. “He picks it up little by little, and for a big horse, when it came to the last sixteenth-mile, he’s was jumping on those last couple horses pretty nice his last two starts.”
Class Leader has worked twice since shipping to Churchill from Fair Grounds: His major work came last week, and Class Leader was just tuning up for Saturday’s race when he breezed an easy half-mile with what Howard called “a nice, smooth gallop out” Tuesday morning. Graham, aboard for the pair of Fair Grounds wins, comes in to ride, and Class Leader ships Friday from Kentucky.
Just how good he is remains to be seen, but Class Leader should at least see out the distance.
Also on Saturday’s card is the Grade 3, $150,000 Sixty Sails Handicap for fillies and mares, which drew a field of eight, headed by Flashy American. The Sixty Sails goes as race 8, the Illinois Derby as race 9, with the post time for the latter at 5:48 p.m. Central. Saturday’s forecast calls for sunny skies and a high temperature near 50 degrees.