Kentucky Derby: Essential Quality, Mandaloun get final tune-ups
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Essential Quality, who has won all his races and will almost certainly be the Kentucky Derby favorite, and Mandaloun, soundly defeated last out as the favorite in the Louisiana Derby, put in their final Derby works Saturday morning at Churchill Downs for trainer Brad Cox.
Champion 2-year-old of 2020 and unbeaten in five starts after wins this year in the Southwest at Oaklawn and the Blue Grass at Keeneland, Essential Quality breezed with his regular workmate, Spa City, who was positioned on the inside as Essential Quality tracked on the outside. Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch timed Essential Quality in splits of 24.90 seconds and 48.09 for a five-furlong clocking of 1:00.63 and a six-furlong gallop-out in 1:14.84. Essential Quality never caught his workmate and galloped out modestly after doing his major Derby work last weekend off his hard-fought April 3 win in the Blue Grass.
“We weren’t looking for a whole lot,” Cox said. “Essential Quality continues to do well. This was kind of his regular work, and he galloped out fine.”
Mandaloun, with race rider Florent Geroux up, worked just after Essential Quality (both horses went out in the first set of the morning, hitting the track when it opened at 5:15 a.m.) and was partnered with recent Keeneland allowance winner Joe Frazier. This work did not go as smoothly as Essential Quality’s, with Joe Frazier starting off some eight to 10 lengths in front of Mandaloun.
“It was meant for those two to be a little closer together breaking off,” Cox said. “That didn’t work out very well.”
Communicating via radio as the breeze commenced, Cox cautioned Geroux to “work on your own” and not set out too quickly after Joe Frazier. Mandaloun, going in splits of 23.65 and 47.73 on Welsch’s watch, caught his partner in midstretch, pinning his ears and stretching out as he worked to get on even terms, before galloping out with good energy.
“Slow it down,” Cox told Geroux as Mandaloun galloped out toward the five-furlong pole. Welsch timed the five-furlong drill in 1:00.37 with a 1:12.85 six-furlong gallop-out.
“He’s training the part,” Cox said. “He definitely made up ground down the lane, galloped out very well. He’s a pretty flashy horse.”
Mandaloun looked like a major Derby contender after winning the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 13 at Fair Grounds but was a no-excuse sixth March 20 in the Louisiana Derby.
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Cox’s third Derby hopeful, Caddo River, merely walked the shed row on Saturday morning after going through his final Derby work Friday.