Girvin, Fast and Accurate drill for Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Girvin, the winner of the Louisiana Derby, and Fast and Accurate, the Spiral Stakes winner, breezed Saturday at the Churchill Downs Trackside facility in preparation for the May 6 Kentucky Derby.

Fast and Accurate was the first of the two Derby prospects to breeze after the track-renovation break, going five furlongs in 59.60 seconds in company with On John, a maiden. Trackside clocker Richard McCreery caught him in splits of 12 seconds, 24, 35.80, and 47.60 and timed him galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.80.

Although he outperformed his workmake, he was passed in the late stages of the work by unexpected company in Big Squeeze, an older allowance horse who went past him in the final furlong, which for five-eighths works at Trackside conclude an eighth of a mile past the customary wire due to the track’s configuration.

Girvin followed Fast and Accurate a few minutes later, going a half-mile in company with stakes winner Cool Arrow in 47.80 seconds under retired jockey Rosie Napravnik, the wife of Girvin’s trainer, Joe Sharp. They were caught in fractions of 11.60, 23, and 35.20, and McCreery timed Girvin galloping out five furlongs in 1:02.80. Girvin went easier than his workmate, though little separated them at the end of the drill.

“It was a little quicker than I would have liked,” said Sharp. “It was the first work back for he and Cool Arrow, and they were both just on the bridle, which is good in a lot of respects. Rosie was happy with it. He seems to be cooling out well, and it will set him up good for his work next week.”

His next work is likely to be five-eighths of a mile, with his Derby jockey, Mike Smith, scheduled to breeze him. “We’re contemplating taking him over to Churchill for the breeze,” Sharp said.

Sharp’s principal base is Trackside, a training facility located about five miles from Churchill Downs that has a three-quarter-mile dirt track for training.

Fast and Accurate, whose form is more established on turf and Polytrack, also left his trainer, Mike Maker, encouraged.

Although he was a well-beaten fifth in his only start on dirt, it came over a Parx surface that Maker called “cuppy” and at a time when the colt was still learning to race, last October in his third start. Since then, he has won three straight: a maiden claimer at Turfway, a small stakes race on grass at Gulfstream, and the Spiral at Turfway.

“He’s obviously a much different horse than he was back then,” Maker said.

His jockey for the Derby is not set. Tyler Gaffalione rode the colt in the Spiral, but he could end up on Patch, the Louisiana Derby runner-up whom he also has ridden, or another mount that becomes available.

Girvin is a 15-1 shot to win the Kentucky Derby on the line set by Daily Racing Form’s Mike Watchmaker, with Fast and Accurate a 50-1 outsider. The latter will be supplemented to the Kentucky Derby at a cost of $200,000.