Late Kentucky Derby arrivals right on time, courtesy of the pandemic

DEL MAR, Calif. – Back on May 2, the day the Kentucky Derby originally was supposed to be run, Art Collector was about 25 miles up the road from Churchill Downs at the Skylight Training Center, having an easy day of training following a half-mile drill the day before, his second recorded work after Tommy Drury took over as his trainer. He would not make his first start of the year until May 17, the day after the Preakness originally would have been run.

Out here in California, Uncle Chuck was training at Los Alamitos, galloping that morning in advance of a five-furlong work the next day, his sixth drill since returning to a regular breeze pattern in late March. He would not make his first start until June 12, six days after the Belmont was originally supposed to be run, thus completing the Triple Crown.

If not for the coronavirus pandemic, which delayed the Derby until Sept. 5, Art Collector and Uncle Chuck would have missed the Derby. Instead, both are very much in play. Art Collector is the second choice and Uncle Chuck the fifth choice on the Derby line Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form makes for the Derby Watch top 20, and both are slated to have their final Derby preps this weekend, Art Collector in the Ellis Park Derby on Sunday, Uncle Chuck in the Travers at Saratoga on Saturday.

The postponement of the Derby was detrimental to horses like Charlatan and Nadal, both of whom raced on May 2 – in divisions of the Arkansas Derby, itself postponed – and subsequently were injured. Horses like Tiz the Law, Honor A. P., Authentic, and Ny Traffic have thus far stayed the course as prominent Derby contenders in the spring who are still significant players even with the delay. The biggest beneficiaries, though, are horses like Art Collector and Uncle Chuck.

“He would never have run in the Derby” without the delay, trainer Bob Baffert said of Uncle Chuck.

Uncle Chuck, by Uncle Mo, was purchased as a yearling for $250,000 for longtime clients Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, who sign their sales slips as Three Amigos. The colt’s physical presence caused Baffert to take a patient approach.

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“When we bought him, we kicked him out,” Baffert said the other morning here at Del Mar. “He was a big, tall, gangly colt. We didn’t even break him right away.”

Baffert has Barry Eisaman of central Florida-based Eisaman Equine break his yearlings. He told Eisaman to take his time.

“He wasn’t going to run as a 2-year-old,” said Baffert, who said Uncle Chuck had some minor shin issues as a youngster owing to his size.

Uncle Chuck didn’t even arrive in Southern California until late last year. As with all Baffert 2-year-olds, he did his early local training at Los Alamitos with assistant Mike Marlow, recording his first work on Dec. 17. He worked five times, then had nearly two months off until resuming an interrupted training pattern, though the path forward for racing at that point was unclear owing to the suspension of racing at Santa Anita, another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uncle Chuck won first time out at Santa Anita on June 12 going one mile, then was immediately fast-tracked to the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby, which he won, defeating stablemate Thousand Words, who came back on Saturday to defeat Honor A. P. in the Shared Belief at Del Mar. This Saturday, Uncle Chuck is stepping all the way up, facing divisional leader – and Belmont winner – Tiz the Law in the Travers in only his third start while shipping cross-country. His raw talent so far has overcome his lack of experience.

“His last work was his best work yet,” Baffert said of a five-furlong drill in 1:00.20 on Saturday. “He’s more focused.”

Unlike Uncle Chuck, Art Collector had a significant foundation at age 2, racing five times for trainer Joe Sharp, the last on Nov. 30, when he won an allowance sprint at Churchill Downs from which he was subsequently disqualified for a medication violation. In late January, Bruce Lunsford, Art Collector’s owner and breeder, moved him to Drury after Art Collector had been turned out on a farm for a freshening.

“If I told you I thought he was a Derby horse when I got him, I’d be lying,” Drury said on a national teleconference this week.

Art Collector had failed in his only two-turn try, albeit on turf, last year, so Drury said it wasn’t until Art Collector won a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Churchill Downs on June 13 in his second start of the year that he began to think about the Derby.

“He was late to the party. He needed everything to fall into place” Drury said.

Art Collector then won the Blue Grass Stakes, making him 3 for 3 this year.

And now he’s one race away from the biggest race of his career, the biggest race of Drury’s career, a scenario that never would have played out had the Derby been on the first Saturday in May instead of the first Saturday in September.