Don't Wait Up could use Lafayette as springboard to Derby Day stakes
If he runs back to his impressive maiden special weight win last September at Saratoga, Don’t Wait Up might be tough to contain in Saturday night’s $60,000 Lafayette at Evangeline Downs.
The Lafayette is a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds, and the field of nine includes Simply Wicked and Dancin With Angles, who both were impressive allowance winners at Delta Downs.
Don’t Wait Up won his maiden at the Lafayette distance in his second career start with a Beyer Speed Figure of 90. He set the pace in the mud that afternoon and darted home in front by two lengths.
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The Lafayette will be his first start since October, when he ran 13th in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Ricky Courville, who trains Kentucky Derby prospect Un Ojo, has prepped Don’t Wait Up for his return after the horse made his first three starts for trainer Tony Dutrow.
“Tony said he had a rough trip in there last time,” Courville said. “He kind of was getting pushed around in the first turn pretty bad. They gave him some time.”
Don’t Wait Up has logged a number of strong works for his return at Evangeline and the nearby Copper Crowne training center, including five furlongs in 59.60 seconds March 19 at Evangeline.
“He’s doing good,” Courville said. “He’s been on a regular work schedule. We’ve worked him under the lights early in the morning because he’s never run under the lights. He worked good under them.”
Courville said jockey C.J. McMahon has teamed with Don’t Wait Up for some of his works leading into the Lafayette. The rider will be aboard from post 3.
“I’m looking for him to run a big race,” Courville said. “He’s a really fast horse, but he settles. I don’t think he’ll be on the lead. He’s been working really nice. He’s a really nice horse.”
Courville said with the right kind of performance, Don’t Wait Up could join Un Ojo for the trip to Churchill Downs and run on the Kentucky Derby undercard in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile. He said Don’t Wait Up also could return to Dutrow.
Don’t Wait Up is a son of Upstart who races for Cypress Creek Equine. He was a $200,000 purchase as a 2-year-old in training last April at Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.
Simple Wicked is cutting back to one turn off a fifth-place finish in the $75,000 Big Drama on Feb. 26 at Delta Downs. One start prior, he won a five-furlong allowance at Delta with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 85. The win came on the cutback from two turns. Ry Eikleberry has the mount for Richard Davis and trainer Robertino Diodoro.
Dancin With Angels was a 9 3/4-length winner of a five-furlong allowance in October at Delta.
The stakes winners Fiesty Fist, who captured a division of the D.S. “Shine” Young Memorial Futurity last year at Evangeline, Yukio, and Vodka Gimlet add further depth to the field. Big Chopper owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, an 81 for an allowance route win at Fair Grounds.