Michael Ball was 22 years old in 1980 when he trained a 3-year-old named Summer Advocate who he thought had potential to be a Kentucky Derby horse. Through April of his 3-year-old year, Summer Advocate was a multiple winner though his one stakes performance to that point was a third in the Spiral Stakes. “He could have beat half of them,” Ball said of the colt he trained for his parents, Don and Mira Ball. “I was 22 years old and I thought I would have one next year that could run better than this one, we don’t need to run him.” Though Summer Advocate would go on to become the most accomplished horse Ball trained – he was a multiple graded stakes winner and earned $582,370 – Ball never really came close to having a Derby-type horse. Ball and his wife, Katherine, appear to have a Derby horse this year in Chief Wallabee. No longer training – Michael stopped in the late 1980s before Katherine took over and trained until 2013 – the Balls are now owners. Chief Wallabee, coming off a maiden win and a narrow second-place finish in the Fountain of Youth, is the morning-line favorite against three graded stakes winners in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Though based in Lexington, Ky., where he and sister Lisa run a home-building business, Michael Ball is not buying Derby tickets just yet. :: DRF's Derby Watch Top 20 | Who's hot, who's not | Pedigree profile: Chief Wallabee “He has to run one-two-three or he won’t have the points to get in the Derby and he has to do all right” afterward, Ball said. “These horses are under a lot of pressure. He’s got to be able to run, come back good, and handle training up to the Derby. Lot of ifs.” Michael and Katherine Ball also are the breeders of Chief Wallabee. The colt is by Constitution out of the unraced mare A La Lucie, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro whom the Balls purchased for $1.1 million as a yearling in 2019. A La Lucie never made it to the races for reasons Michael Ball did not recall. Chief Wallabee represents the first horse the Balls have had with Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who won his second Kentucky Derby last year with Sovereignty. The Balls typically run their horses in Kentucky, but the way Chief Wallabee trained early on they felt he was capable of running in Saratoga as a 2-year-old and chose Mott to be his trainer. “I’ve known him forever. I know how good he is. I used to train against him in the early ’80s at Churchill Downs. I always admired his work,” Ball said. "He’s been good for a long time.” Last spring and early summer at Keeneland, Chief Wallabee had worked six times under the tutelage of Bill Harrigan – a well-respected horseman who has played a role in developing such classic winners as A.P. Indy and Tonalist. Ball said he asked Harrigan to contact Mott. “I figured if Bill Harrigan told him the horse could run, he’d believe him more than he’d believe me being Bill’s legged up a whole lot of nice horses for the last 30 years,” Ball said. :: DRF Road to the Derby Package Available Now! Save 37% on key handicapping essentials through Kentucky Derby day. Mott received the horse while the Saratoga meet was going on, but the colt had a couple of setbacks. Mott said Chief Wallabee slipped on the road one morning “and dinged himself up a little bit.” Chief Wallabee also developed a splint bone injury that took him out of consideration for a fall race. Chief Wallabee, an early arrival at Payson Park last fall, made it to the races on Jan. 10 at Gulfstream and defeated the highly regarded The Puma by 1 1/4 lengths in a fast-rated race. The Puma, two starts later won the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby. Mott was hoping to run Chief Wallabee in an allowance race before stepping into stakes company, but there wasn’t one at the distance of his liking. Mott opted to run Chief Wallabee in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, a 1 1/16-mile race around two turns where, with a little bit of a wide trip, he finished a strong second, beaten a neck, by Commandment, a horse who had three previous starts and had won a stakes race. “I thought it was very good. He got jammed up a little bit on the first turn, had a little bit of a wide trip on both turns, but when he asked him, he lunged forward, he just didn’t get there,” Mott said. “It was a good race from him. Second start of his life, I was pretty impressed.” So was everyone else. Chief Wallabee has risen to near the top of many pundits’ Kentucky Derby lists. In a Florida Derby that includes multiple stakes winner Commandment and last out-graded stakes winners Nearly and The Puma, Chief Wallabee is the 2-1 morning-line favorite. Chief Wallabee’s form is eerily similar to that of his sire, Constitution, who won the 2014 Florida Derby in his third career start. Constitution, trained by Todd Pletcher, won his debut Jan. 11 at Gulfstream, running seven furlongs in 1:23.36. Chief Wallabee won his debut Jan. 10, running seven furlongs in 1:23.35. Constitution won a 1 1/16-mile allowance on Feb. 22, while Chief Wallabee was second in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth on Feb. 28. Constitution won the Florida Derby on March 29 before a hairline fracture diagnosed three weeks before the race forced him out of the Kentucky Derby. Ball said his wife named the horse Chief Wallabee for the shoes he frequently wears. Wallabee shoes are described as moccasin-inspired casual shoes with a soft suede or leather upper and a crepe rubber sole. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2026: Top contenders, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more “She got me,” Ball said. “Can’t change the name now.” If Chief Wallabee does enough Saturday to move on to the Kentucky Derby, it will give Mott a chance to become the first trainer to win back-to-back Kentucky Derbies since Bob Baffert did it with Silver Charm and Real Quiet in 1997-98. Last year, Mott won the Derby with Sovereignty, who had three races as a 2-year-old, won the Fountain of Youth, and finished second in the Florida Derby. Chief Wallabee will come to it in a very different fashion. “I’ve never underestimated the importance of these horses having races as a 2-year-old coming into the Derby, that’s certainly an advantage for any of them if they had a race in September, October, November and had a little time in between,” Mott said. “We don’t have that luxury.” What Mott and the Balls do have is a fast horse. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.