King Guillermo works for Arkansas Derby, leaves by van Wednesday night

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tampa Bay Derby winner King Guillermo will say bon voyage to South Florida for the better part of the next month when he boards a van bound for Oaklawn Park along with stablemate Trophy Chaser at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Approximately 12 hours earlier, he turned in the last in a series of very impressive works in preparation for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on May 2.

Working shortly after the track opened at 5:15 a.m., King Guillermo officially worked four furlongs in 48.18 seconds, completing his final quarter in 23.20. But as was the case the previous week, it was the gallop-out that stole the show as the Tampa Bay Derby winner was timed in 1:00.60 for five furlongs and 1:12.80 for six panels before pulling up a complete mile in 1:39.40.

“Excellent, perfect, I couldn’t be happier,” trainer Juan Carlos Avila exclaimed a short while later. “Everything is going very good since his last start. I think he’s doing even better now than before he won at Tampa.”

Trophy Chaser, who’ll compete on the Arkansas Derby undercard in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Park Handicap, also turned in another strong move under the cover of darkness Wednesday. He breezed four furlongs in 47.77, shading 23 for the final quarter before galloping out five-eighths in 1:01.

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Avila will accompany both King Guillermo and Trophy Chaser on the long van ride to Oaklawn.

“I prefer putting them on a truck rather than a plane because I can be with them the whole way,” Avila said.

Under Oaklawn Park’s current policy during the coronavirus pandemic, only trainers or assistant trainers – not grooms – are permitted to accompany horses shipping to the track for stakes races. And while trainers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana, or outside the continental United States are required to quarantine for 14 days before being allowed on the grounds at Oaklawn, those accompanying horses from Florida are not on that list.

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Barring a change in Gulfstream policy, Avila’s horses will have to be quarantined for 14 days in Florida after they race, but outside of designated track grounds or stabling facilities, before they’ll be allowed to return to their stalls at Gulfstream Park.