El Kabeir likely a go for Kentucky Derby

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though disappointed in El Kabeir’s third-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial, owner Ahmed Zayat said Monday he is leaning toward running the horse in the Kentucky Derby.

“If you ask me today, I’d say 80 percent we should go,” Zayat said by phone Monday afternoon. “For the trainer, for the horse, they deserve a chance.”

El Kabeir, trained by John Terranova, certainly has enough qualifying points to get into the Kentucky Derby based on his victories in the Kentucky Jockey Club last fall and the Jerome and Gotham this year.

In Saturday’s Wood, El Kabeir finished third, 5 3/4 lengths behind Frosted, who beat Tencendur by two lengths. With three furlongs to run, El Kabeir was last, about five lengths off a slow pace. When jockey C.C. Lopez got him to the outside in the stretch, El Kabeir came with a run, but really didn’t make up any ground on the top two. He did gallop out past Frosted around the turn after the race.

Zayat wasn’t happy with the way Lopez rode the horse in the Wood, believing he misjudged the slow pace. Zayat told Lopez after the Gotham that he would not take the 54-year-old journeyman rider off the horse, but was wavering on that promise Monday.

“I’m not sure who’s going to ride him,” Zayat said. “If I decided not to keep C.C. on him I would want to tell him myself and not have him hear about it in the press. I won’t make up my mind for a couple of days. I see no reason not to sleep on it.”

Calvin Borel, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner, rode El Kabeir to victory in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs last November. Borel was named to ride El Kabeir in the Jerome on Jan. 3, but had to take off after his sister-in-law died a few days before the race.

Tonja Terranova, assistant trainer to her husband, John, said El Kabeir came out of the Wood in good shape.