Kentucky Derby: Cox trio in 'fantastic' condition
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Brad Cox said Sunday morning that his three Kentucky Derby starters – Cyberknife, Zozos, and Tawny Port – had emerged from their Saturday workouts in “fantastic” condition.
All three horses merely walked Cox’s shed row on Sunday morning. Cox said the trio would jog on the main track Monday before resuming regular gallops Tuesday. Cox said the gallops would be restrained throughout the week leading up to the Derby.
Cyberknife, winner of the Arkansas Derby, figures to be the shortest price among Cox’s three runners, followed by Zozos, who most recently was second in the Louisiana Derby, and Tawny Port, winner of the Lexington Stakes.
Crown Pride, seeking to become Japan’s first winner of an American classic race, had a typically busy training morning Sunday, doing figure eights and circles in Churchill’s dirt-track chute before going through another energetic gallop under rider Masa Matsuda. Crown Pride, as has become standard, was allowed to run at workout pace from about the three-sixteenths pole through the wire before Matsuda began easing up at the seven-furlong marker. Crown Pride is scheduled to have an officially timed workout Wednesday.
Crown Pride has been in America for a month now and has changed for the better since arriving, according to Matsuda, who serves as exercise rider and a de facto assistant to trainer Koichi Shintani.
“At first when we arrived here he was a little quiet, but as soon as we started [galloping] he became a lot more energetic,” Matsuda said.
Matsuda’s background in showing horses has been on display every morning at Churchill with the intricate maneuvers he puts Crown Pride through in the chute before going off to do more cardiovascular-focused training. The figure eights and loops work different muscle sets and help warm-up Crown Pride. “And every racehorse needs to learn how to be balanced, too. This helps with that,” Matsuda said.