Instilled Regard moved to Brown's barn at Belmont

ARCADIA, Calif. – Instilled Regard, unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 5, has been transferred from trainer Jerry Hollendorfer to Chad Brown in New York for a late-summer campaign, owner Larry Best said on Thursday.

Instilled Regard was based in California with Hollendorfer through the Kentucky Derby before being rested on a Kentucky farm through May and early June.

“I think he added 75 to 80 pounds,” Best said. “I’ve shipped him to Belmont Park.”

Best said the decision to send Instilled Regard to Brown was based on the preponderance of graded stakes on dirt on the East Coast during the summer compared with California, which emphasizes turf stakes for 3-year-olds.

“I thought he could hang out at Belmont and see how long it takes to get him back into condition,” Best said. “I’d like to get him in the races in late July, but it could be August.”

At Saratoga this summer, the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, a $600,000 race at 1 1/8 miles, will be run July 28 as a prep for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes, a $1.25 million race at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 25.

Instilled Regard has won 2 of 8 starts and earned $394,000. He won the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds in January and was fourth in his next three starts – the Grade 2 Risen Star, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and the Kentucky Derby, in which he closed from 17th to finish 4 1/4 lengths behind Justify.

“He ran a good race in the Kentucky Derby,” Best said. “He never quits. I think he’s a durable horse and we’ll have a better second half of 2018 and 2019.”

Best said he will continue to have horses with Hollendorfer in California, including several 2-year-olds expected to start this summer at Del Mar.