Plus Que Parfait rebounds from flop to win United Arab Emirates Derby

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Trainer Brendan Walsh spent six years during the early and mid-aughts working in Dubai. Jockey Jose Ortiz got to this place for the first time Wednesday, but he’s riding like he’s been here all his life.

After guiding Coal Front to victory Saturday in the Godolphin Mile, his first mount at Meydan Racecourse, Ortiz piloted Plus Que Parfait to a win in the Group 2, $2.5 million UAE Derby.

Coal Front raced in the clear after breaking from the outside, and Ortiz’s main task in that race was to get the timing right. The UAE Derby required more, with Plus Que Parfait stuck on the fence down the backstretch and Ortiz faced with decisions as he rounded the far turn. Seeing a legendary jockey making a move in front of him, Ortiz seized the moment.

“I followed Frankie Dettori,” Ortiz said. “I tried to go outside, but there wasn’t room, so I went inside, and the horse responded for me.”

Coming between horses in the final furlong, Plus Que Parfait held off a solid run from Gray Magician to give Walsh a likely runner in the Kentucky Derby. Plus Que Parfait earned 100 Derby qualifying points and will start in the race if all goes well.

“It’d be hard not to go,” said Walsh, an Ireland native who worked in England before coming to Dubai and was an assistant for trainer Eddie Kenneally after making the move to America.

The Derby also will be considered for Gray Magician, who finished three-quarters of a length behind the winner.

“We were outside, and he came up the inside, and I think that made all the difference,” said trainer Peter Miller, who had finished second and third in the Al Quoz Sprint just one race earlier.

Miller wouldn’t rule out a Derby start for Gray Magician, whose 40 points could be enough to make the 20-horse field. “We’ll have to see how he comes back,” Miller said.

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Plus Que Parfait came a long way back from a 13th-place finish in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 19 at Fair Grounds, his most recent start and easily the worst of his career. The colt’s owner, Imperial Racing, is Dubai-based, and the UAE Derby had long been a target, so Walsh pressed on, sending Plus Que Parfait to Florida to train up to Saturday’s start and deciding to race Plus Que Parfait in blinkers.

“He’s not an ungenuine horse, but I think the blinkers really helped,” said Walsh, who was delighted from the start with the way Plus Que Parfait shipped into Dubai and trained here.

Ortiz said he hoped to stick closer to the lead, but Plus Que Parfait raced in the third flight of horses while clinging to the fence, so far inside that Ortiz said he was avoiding kickback. Plus Que Parfait showed no real interest in competing in the Risen Star, but he traveled with a purpose throughout this start.

“He was there for me the whole way,” said Ortiz.

Gray Magician finished just a neck in front of Manguzi, who ran a career-best race while more than five lengths clear of the fourth-place finisher, Japan-based Derma Louvre. The favored filly Divine Image had decent position to the three-furlong pole but came up entirely empty and finished 13th. Van Beethoven, trainer Aidan O’Brien’s entrant, was ninth.

Plus Que Parfait is by Point of Entry and out of Belvedera, by Awesome Again, and he won for just the second time in seven starts. Plus Que Parfait doesn’t fly back to America until Monday, April 8. He’ll travel to Kentucky and begin preparing for a much bigger derby than the one he won Saturday.