Prat picks up mount on World Approval for Kilroe Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat will ride Breeders’ Cup Mile winner World Approval for the first time in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf March 10 at Santa Anita, trainer Mark Casse said.

Prat won the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes on Feb. 10 at Santa Anita aboard Om, who will now be ridden by Mike Smith in the Kilroe Mile, trainer Dan Hendricks said.

Smith has never ridden Om.

“I’ve won a lot of big races with Mike,” Hendricks said.

For Hendricks, Smith won four consecutive stakes aboard Daytona in the autumn of 2007 and winter of 2008, including the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Hollywood Park.

World Approval, who races for Live Oak Plantation, was the champion turf male of 2017 and has won 12 of 25 starts and earned $3,052,363. World Approval won his 2018 debut in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes on Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs, his fourth consecutive stakes win and 10th stakes win of his career.

Om is a 6-year-old gelding who has won 6 of 23 starts and earned $1,001,645, all for owner K.B. Sareen.

The field for the $400,000 Kilroe Mile may include What a View, who won the 2016 running and was second last year. What a View has not raced since finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile last June.

Trainer Kenny Black plans to use Saturday’s Grade 3 Daytona Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course as a prep for What a View for the Kilroe Mile.

“I think he looks good,” Black said. “He put on good weight. I think the extra time off did him good. We’re trying to get to the Kilroe as best as we can.”

– additional reporting by Jay Privman