Kentucky Derby scratch Encino makes return

Four-year-old Encino, scratched from the Kentucky Derby the Tuesday before the race, makes his first start since winning the Lexington Stakes in April at Keeneland in a dirt-route allowance Thursday at Fair Grounds.

Encino joins five other entrants in a third-level allowance over 1 1/16 miles. The race has an $80,000 claiming option, but all six start under the allowance condition with Encino, Florent Geroux named, all but certain to go off lower than his 6-5 morning line.

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Encino made three synthetic-surface starts at Turfway Park before winning the Lexington, and after outworking Catching Freedom on April 27 at Churchill, Encino’s connections decided to take a shot in the Derby. Catching Freedom, an average work horse at best, would go on to finish fourth in the Derby, but after his first day back galloping following the work, Encino came up lame and following an examination was diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury. Trainer Brad Cox said upon announcing the colt’s Derby withdrawal that he hoped Encino would only miss 30 days. Instead, he didn’t work again until October.

Encino, a Godolphin homebred by Nyquist out of Glittering Jewel, by Bernardini, was a big horse last spring, and now, from publicly posted video of a Jan. 4 workout at Fair Grounds, appears enormous. Hardly a sweet mover, Encino that morning breezed inside Lecomte Stakes entrant Disco Time and, as he should have, worked somewhat stronger than his younger stablemate. On paper, even considering the long break, Encino looks too good for the somewhat limited opposition entered to oppose him.

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