Maxfield targets return in Matt Winn Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brendan Walsh got the extra time he needed with Maxfield. Soon it’ll be up to the colt to capitalize on the reprieve.

Maxfield is widely regarded as a major contender for the 146th Kentucky Derby, but only because the coronavirus crisis forced Churchill Downs officials to postpone it from May 2 to Sept. 5. If the race had been run as originally scheduled, Maxfield would have been hard-pressed to make the race – let alone win it.

Now, with four extra months, Walsh is proceeding at a more reasonable pace in his training of Maxfield, the Godolphin homebred whose 5 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity last October at Keeneland remains his most recent start. Maxfield is expected to make his eagerly awaited return to action in the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill, giving Walsh and everyone else a fair gauge on where the colt fits into the Derby picture.

“This would be a nice spot to start back in, with the timing and all,” Walsh said this week by phone from Keeneland, where Maxfield resumed serious training in early April following two months of prep work at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.

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Maxfield breezed six furlongs in 1:13.20 on Saturday – the original Derby Day – in his ninth work since mid-February. Walsh said Maxfield will breeze the next two weekends at Keeneland before moving over to his Churchill barn “probably a few days” ahead of the 1 1/16-mile Matt Winn, adding the colt has flourished in his morning exercises.

“I’m delighted with him, actually,” he said.

Before it was delayed, the Derby was going to be a real stretch for Maxfield. The colt underwent surgery in early November for an ankle chip, and Walsh found himself on a very tight schedule in making preparations for the race. But everything changed when Churchill announced the postponement on March 17.

The Grade 3, $150,000 Matt Winn will offer 17 Derby qualifying points (10-4-2-1) as the first new points race on the expanded Road to the Derby. Churchill is still working with other tracks on a comprehensive list of points races, with a schedule release expected in the coming days or weeks.

Besides Maxfield, the Winn also is expected to get a second member of the latest Daily Racing Form Derby Watch Top 20, Major Fed, and possibly a third, Mr. Big News.

Major Fed, a late-running fourth in the March 21 Louisiana Derby in his latest start, is trained by Greg Foley for a Lloyd Madison Farms partnership headed by Rob Lloyd. Both Foley and Lloyd are longtime Louisville-area residents.

Mr. Big News won the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes at 46-1, but that race did not offer Derby points. Trainer Bret Calhoun said he “would like to run” the Giant’s Causeway colt in the Winn, “but we don’t have any points yet and surprisingly they are not offering many for that race.”

Entries for the Winn will be taken May 20.