McPeek hoping lights go on for Blackout Time in St. Louis Derby
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Since the $250,000 St. Louis Derby was reintroduced at Fairmount Park in 2021, Kenny McPeek has become a regular participant, winning the race with Rattle N Roll in 2022 and entering top three finishers each year since. The trainer is similarly prepared for the 2026 edition, as Blackout Time will ship in search of his first stakes victory.
“He’s had times where we’ve raised him up in class and he struggled,” McPeek said. “At the same time, I just think this is an ideal spot for him, and hopefully he can move forward off this as well.”
Since finishing second behind Ted Noffey in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity as a juvenile, Blackout Time has had several more brushes with the best of his crop. He began his 3-year-old campaign on the road to the Kentucky Derby, finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Rebel and fifth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.
When the Not This Time colt won a first-level allowance at Churchill Downs by six lengths in June, McPeek thought he was ready to step back up in the $150,000 Curlin at Saratoga, a potential prep for the Grade 1 Travers. He lost all chance after getting carried six wide into the first turn.
“Nothing went his way that day,” McPeek said.
Blackout Time is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/16-mile St. Louis Derby, where he may be able to break through in slightly more forgiving company.
Trainer Joe Sharp said the Louisiana-bred colt Creole Chrome will scratch, leaving one stakes winner in the shortened field of seven 3-year-olds. Hedge Ratio, the last-out winner of the $100,000 Long Branch at Monmouth Park, will make his first start for new trainer Wesley Ward.
“He was a pretty talented colt on paper, and we looked at him physically and he was a beautiful individual,” Ward said. “When you get a new horse, you try to figure him out, and he’s pretty straightforward. He’s everything you’d want if you’re buying a horse.”
In six starts for Chad Brown, Hedge Ratio won three races while gradually stretching out in distance. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in a first-level allowance at Aqueduct before shipping to New Jersey for his first stakes victory. He arrives at Fairmount off a nearly four-month layoff.
Ward also entered Wonder Mist and said he plans to send the longshot to the front. He could be joined by the Jonathan Thomas-trained gelding Sharons Beach.
The Hell We Did, the seventh-place finisher in the Preakness, has finished second in his other three stakes attempts for trainer Todd Fincher. The colt closed from well back in his last two starts and came up 1 3/4 lengths short in the $250,000 Iowa Derby last month.
“He went to Prairie Meadows and got squeezed back going in the first turn,” Fincher said. “The pace was slow, and it looked like he wasn’t going to run again, but he just stayed on, found a hole, and made a nice run.”
In April, The Hell We Did pressed the early leader and finished second in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland, making the most of a vastly different running style.
Local runners Illini Red and Grind complete the field.
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