Kentucky Derby: Intense Holiday pleases Pletcher
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Each year, there is a buzz horse entering the Kentucky Derby, a 3-year-old whose pre-race training gets the pulse of the backstretch racing leading up to the Run for the Roses.
On Sunday, Intense Holiday may have stamped himself as that horse with a visually impressive workout over a dull Churchill Downs main track. The work, timed by Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch in 48.65 seconds, even had the colt’s even-keeled trainer, Todd Pletcher, gushing.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
“I can’t say that I’ve ever seen him work better than he worked today,” Pletcher told the assembled media throng outside his barn. “I would probably classify this as the best work I’ve seen from him. Having said that, the horse always trains well. It’s normal for him to breeze well, but I thought that was exceptionally good this morning.”
Intense Holiday was one of seven horses to put in workouts Sunday in preparation for Saturday’s 140th Kentucky Derby on a day when the race lost one starter and picked up another.
Ring Weekend, the Tampa Bay Derby winner, was withdrawn from the race due to a temperature, according to trainer Graham Motion. His defection opened the door for Commanding Curve to run. Coincidentally, West Point Thoroughbreds has majority ownership in both horses.
Intense Holiday, owned by the Starlight Stable of Jack and Laurie Wolf and Don and Barbara Lucarelli, won the Risen Star in February and finished second behind Vicar’s in Trouble in the Louisiana Derby in March. His habit of cross-firing - where his front legs and hind legs are not moving in tandem - provided some cause for concern. But the way he moved over the Churchill track on Sunday seemed to ease those worries.
Intense Holiday, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the work, effortlessly left his workmate, We Miss Artie, in the late stages of the breeze, getting his final quarter in 23.61 seconds. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.31 and pulled up six furlongs in 1:15.39, while finishing well clear of We Miss Artie.
“I never worked him before and then he comes here a week before the Derby and he works the way he did, you get excited about it,” said Velazquez, who in the Derby will ride Intense Holiday for the first time in a race. “You hope he can do that in the race.”
As happy as Pletcher was with Intense Holiday’s work, he was not at all happy with We Miss Artie’s breeze, calling it “the worst I’ve seen him work on the dirt.”
We Miss Artie has done his best running on turf and synthetic, winning a maiden on grass and the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes over Polytrack. He is 0 for 3 on dirt.
Ken Ramsey, owner of We Miss Artie, was not present for the workout. However, he spoke with Pletcher and exercise rider Nick Bush afterward and said, barring a soundness issue, We Miss Artie, would run in the Derby.
Ramsey is holding on to the theory that the Churchill surface the Derby is run on is usually quite different from the one these horses train over a week out.
“There are 20 horses in the Derby and somebody’s got to run 20th,” said Ramsey, who will also be represented in the race by Louisiana Derby winner Vicar’s in Trouble. “If it’s We Miss Artie, it’s We Miss Artie. If in the morning he’s still sound we plan to run. We will hope the track will be different.”
Also working in company for Pletcher on Sunday were his Arkansas Derby winner Danza and Sam F. Davis winner Vinceremos. Danza worked four furlongs in 49.07 seconds, finishing a length in front of Vinceremos, who went the same distance in 49.27.
Afterward, it was confirmed that Vinceremos, who finished last in the Blue Grass run over a synthetic surface, would run in the Derby and will be ridden by Joe Rocco Jr.
Speaking of Danza, Pletcher said, “He’s doing really well, getting better and better; came out of the Arkansas Derby proud of himself and seems to be taking to the track.”
In other Derby news:
* Chitu, the Sunland Park Derby winner, worked six furlongs in 1:13.11 out of the gate in company with stablemate Party Time. Though Chitu lost his right front shoe during the work, trainer Bob Baffert was happy enough with the move to forge on to the Derby.
“I needed to get a stiff work in him,” Baffert said. “He’s a lazy, sluggish work horse. I needed to wake him up. I worked him with someone.
“He had to show me something like that today or I was going to pull the plug," Baffert added.
* Ride On Curlin, the Arkansas Derby runner-up, worked a slow seven furlongs in 1:28.98 in which he went his first quarter in 27.17 seconds and his last quarter in 27.13 seconds.
"He was nice and relaxed,” said Bryan Beccia, exercise rider of Ride On Curlin. “We weren't looking for speed. Just wanted to keep him in hand. He finished up real good. The track was a little flat."
* Wildcat Red, the Fountain of Youth winner, worked a slow five-eighths in 1:04.39, getting his final quarter in 25.50 seconds under jockey Luis Saez.
Trainer Jose Garoffalo, as one might expect, put a positive spin on the work.
“We want to give him more stamina than speed,” Garoffalo said. “He already has the speed.”
* Uncle Sigh and Wicked Strong both arrived at Churchill Downs. Uncle Sigh, wearing his new set of yellow and purple blinkers to match his owner’s colors, went to the track while Wicked Strong did not, owing to the fact that he arrived here shortly after 5 a.m.
* Medal Count and Candy Boy both emerged from their final Kentucky Derby breezes Saturday at Churchill Downs in good order for trainers Dale Romans and John Sadler, respectively. Both are expected to return to the track on Monday.
* Trainer Peter Eurton also said Blue Grass winner Dance With Fate, who worked Saturday at Santa Anita, was in good form Sunday morning. The colt will fly to Louisville on Monday.
- additional reporting by Jay Privman, Nicole Russo, and Mike Welsch