Kentucky Derby: Geroux figures to sit tight on Hence this time around

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On the first Saturday in May 2016, the jockey Florent Geroux angled for home in his first Kentucky Derby with not a single horse between his mount, Gun Runner, and the distant finish line.

Gun Runner had been third at the first call behind runaway pacesetter Danzing Candy and eventual winner Nyquist, but he took up a position in front of Nyquist and was the first to attack a fading Danzing Candy.

“I saw almost nobody the whole race, like two horses,” Geroux recalled. “The race set up exactly the way I thought it would. There were no surprises. At the three-eighths pole, I was feeling pretty great, but I didn’t feel so good when I saw Nyquist at the three-sixteenths pole.”

:: ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays, and analysis

Saturday, Geroux will ride in his second Kentucky Derby. Like last year, he has a mount for trainer Steve Asmussen, but this time around, Geroux will get to look at plenty of his rivals. His horse, Hence, comes off a victory in the Sunland Derby in which he dropped back to last early and looped the field for a going-away win. Hence used to be a horse with some early pace, but Asmussen sees no reason to try and change the style that just produced Hence’s career-best race.

And that means Geroux is going from the hunted to the hunter. Where he was hoping for soft splits on the front end in 2016, Geroux needs a fast pace Saturday to set things up for Hence. And even in a race without an abundance of confirmed front-runners, Geroux believes the Derby will be fairly run.

“The Derby always goes faster than you think,” he said. “Many people are going to look at the same thing and say there’s no pace, then go to the lead and try to steal it.”

Geroux’s first time on Hence’s back will come when he gets a leg up on the paddock before the Derby. He hopes that even on a horse with a totally different style than Gun Runner he can pull the right strings.

“I was happy just with the fact I rode a good race last year,” said Geroux. “Sometimes you ride your first Derby and its like, ‘Terrible ride, terrible decisions.’ At least they can say, ‘This guy handled everything and gave my horse every opportunity to win the race.'”