Euro shippers Bolshoi Ballet, Yibir class of Jockey Club Derby
ELMONT, N.Y. – Yibir and Bolshoi Ballet are the horses to beat in Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Derby Invitational at Belmont Park, but it appears both late-runners will have to overcome a dearth of pace in the 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.
The Jockey Club Derby brings to a close the New York Racing Association’s turf triple series. Bolshoi Ballet won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby at 1 1/4 miles here in July but finished fourth behind State of Rest in the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Derby last month. In the Belmont Derby, Bolshoi Ballet rallied from seventh behind a slow pace. In the Saratoga Derby, he was up close to a faster pace.
T.J. Comerford, the assistant to trainer Aidan O’Brien, believes the tighter configuration of Saratoga’s turf course worked against Bolshoi Ballet more so than the pace.
“That pace last time was what we didn’t want, we kind of got wrapped up in it a bit,” Comerford said. “But we focus on the pace too much when maybe it was the track.”
The Belmont Derby was run over the inner turf. The Jockey Club Derby is run over the outer course, which does have the wide-sweeping turns that Comerford feels Bolshoi Ballet will appreciate.
“The mile and a half is going to be better for him as well,” Comerford said.
Bolshoi Ballet’s presence in the Jockey Club Derby was a late-minute maneuver after the horse was scratched out of last Sunday’s Prix Niel in France. The racing stewards at Longchamp scratched him out of the race due to an irregularity with his vaccination records for equine influenza, according to published reports in Europe.
Comerford said Bolshoi Ballet shipped from France to Ireland on Sunday and, after training Monday and Tuesday at O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable, shipped to New York, arriving late Tuesday evening. After doing a quarantine period, Bolshoi Ballet was scheduled to train Friday.
Ryan Moore rides Bolshoi Ballet from the outside post in the eight-horse field.
Yibir, trained by Charlie Appleby, is coming off a 1 1/4-length victory in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes on Aug. 18 at York, beating The Mediterranean, who came back to run third in a Group 1 at Doncaster last weekend. Yibir and Solider Rising, runner-up in the Saratoga Derby, are the only two runners in the field to have won at 1 1/2 miles.
“Jamie Spencer is coming over to ride, and Jamie’s style of riding should suit him down to the ground,” Appleby said Wednesday. “He’s a hold-up horse who’s going to need the luck of the race as well, but he goes there in great shape. If he brings his A game, he’s the one they’ve got to beat.”
Tango Tango Tango could be the pace of the Jockey Club Derby. He raced second early on when he won the American Derby and was second behind Point Me By in the Grade 1 Bruce D. at Arlington.
Trainer Jack Sisterson is removing the blinkers from Tango Tango Tango for this race. Flavien Prat has the call from the rail.
Tokyo Gold came from off the pace when second to Bolshoi Ballet in the Belmont Derby. Trainer Satoshi Kobayashi wanted him closer to the pace and hopes jockey John Velazquez, who rides Tokyo Gold for a second time, “can try to get a good position this time. The wider track will be good for him too,” Kobayashi said.
Tokyo Gold breaks from post 3 on Saturday.
Soldier Rising made a good late run to finish a clear second in the Saratoga Derby on Aug. 7, his first start in the United States and first for trainer Christophe Clement. It also was his first in blinkers.
“The horse to beat on paper is [Yibir,] but mine ran very well the other day,” Clement said.
Experienced, second in the Bald Eagle Derby at 1 1/2 miles two back, Step Dancer, and Slicked Back complete the field.
The winner of the Jockey Club Derby earns a fees-paid berth into the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
In addition to the $535,000 first-place purse, Bolshoi Ballet could earn his owners Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier an additional $330,000 and O’Brien an additional $35,000 if he can add the Jockey Club Derby to his earlier victory in the Belmont Derby as part of a bonus instituted by NYRA.
The Jockey Club Derby goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that also includes the $700,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational for 3-year-old fillies and the $300,000 Grand Prix American Jockey Club Invitational for older males going 1 5/8 miles.