Kentucky Derby: McPeek has trio for Blue Grass Stakes

Trainer Kenny McPeek comes into Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes under the radar despite being expected to enter three in the Grade 1, $1 million race. Hayes Strike, last-out winner of the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel, headlines the trio, while McPeek also planned to saddle graded stakes-placed Sun Thunder and the unbeaten but lightly raced Mendelssohns March.

McPeek will be busy with his 3-year-olds in the first two days of the Keeneland meet, also sending out Defining Purpose in the sister race to the Blue Grass, Friday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland Stakes. The Blue Grass and Ashland are major final prep races worth points toward the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively.

McPeek is the most recent of six trainers to have swept the Ashland and Blue Grass in the same year – and, should his runners succeed this weekend, he would be the only trainer to accomplish the feat twice. McPeek sent out 2002 Ashland winner Take Charge Lady and Blue Grass winner Harlan’s Holiday. Both went on to be significant horses for the breed, with Take Charge Lady honored as Broodmare of the Year and Harlan’s Holiday siring record-setting leading sire Into Mischief.

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The legendary Ben Jones was the first trainer to accomplish the Blue Grass-Ashland double, with future Hall of Famers Coaltown and Bewitch in 1948. Following him were Woody Stephens with Halt and Tall Weeds in 1949; George Poole with Impetuosity and You All in 1971; LeRoy Jolley with Honest Pleasure and Optimistic Gal in 1976; and D. Wayne Lukas with War and Chic Shirine in 1987.

Hayes Strike touted himself as a promising Derby hopeful last year with multiple graded stakes placings at Churchill Downs, finishing second to Two Phil’s – most recently winner of the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby – in the Grade 3 Street Sense, and then third to Instant Coffee and Curly Jack in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club. But after Hayes Strike was fourth in the Gun Runner at Fair Grounds and ninth in the Leonatus on Turfway’s Tapeta, McPeek needed to right the ship.

“I don’t run many horses in Maryland,” McPeek said. “His race at Turfway, nothing went right. He didn’t ship well, and he didn’t handle the synthetic surface at all. I just needed to get him back on the dirt and get him back to winning.”

Hayes Strike found the winner’s circle at Laurel, taking the Private Terms at 1 1/16 miles on March 18. He comes into the Blue Grass off that effort, for which he earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 87.

Hayes Strike, by Connect, is a half-brother to Senior Investment, winner of the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland’s 2017 spring meet for McPeek. He went on to finish third in the Preakness Stakes.

“Senior Investment needed a mile and an eighth, and his brother is the same,” McPeek said.

Sun Thunder, by Into Mischief, was second in the Grade 2 Risen Star to Angel of Empire, who then scored an impressive victory in last weekend’s Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. Sun Thunder subsequently was fifth in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 25.

Mendelssohns March, from the first crop of Mendelssohn, won a February maiden race on the Fair Grounds turf, then an allowance event in March at Oaklawn.

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