Pruett living the dream with Discreetness in Southwest Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Dwight Pruett has owned horses for just three years but already has landed what most in the industry are chasing – a 3-year-old on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

Discreetness, who races for Pruett’s Xpress Thoroughbreds, will be out to win his third straight stakes race Monday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest at Oaklawn Park. He won the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in December, then took down Oaklawn’s first 3-year-old prep, the $150,000 Smarty Jones in January, to pick up 10 eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.

“I know how blessed I am,” said Pruett, a 62-year-old resident of Texarkana, Ark. “There’s a lot of people who have been around it for a lot of years and spend millions of dollars. I realize it and don’t take it for granted.”

Discreetness is one of 11 horses Pruett has in training with Jinks Fires, the 75-year-old who in 2011 won the Southwest and Arkansas Derby with eventual Kentucky Derby starter Archarcharch. Discreetness will break from the No. 14 hole on Monday against a full field in which the rail-drawn Collected could go favored off his win in the Grade 3 Sham at Santa Anita.

Discreetness was a $105,000 purchase during the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. auction of 2-year-olds in training last March. He won his debut in a maiden special weight at 5 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 6 at Arlington Park and proceeded to capture an optional $75,000 claiming race two starts later at Churchill Downs before having stakes success to lift his current bankroll to $282,122.

“We went down to Ocala to buy a horse or two, and we bought five,” said Pruett. “Jinks really has an eye for a horse, looking at conformation and all. He’s outstanding at that.”

Fires said in addition to Discreetness’s conformation, there were other aspects he liked about the colt, a son of Discreet Cat and the Elusive Quality mare Fondness.

“He just looked like he had the presence of an athlete,” Fires said. “He looked like an athlete, and he was very calm. He had the right attitude for a horse. That’s something that a lot of people don’t look at – attitude. But you buy a good-looking horse, if he’s wild and crazy, it’s hard to get that out of them sometimes.”

Discreetness’s composure has been a benefit, said Paul Griffiths, a former steeplechase jockey and the regular exercise rider of Discreetness.

“He’s a class act,” Griffiths said. “He’s very laid-back, and he doesn’t leave his races out there in the morning.”

Jon Court, the 55-year-old regular rider of Discreetness and the son-in-law of Fires, likes how Discreetness is coming up to the Southwest.

“He just keeps moving forward,” Court said. “He needs to do that with the races he’s on the path to run in. But he’s doing everything that he’s supposed to. He’s an intelligent horse. He doesn’t get shook up about anything. He’s got talent. You like to see him keep moving forward with his talent.”

Court said Discreetness is a push-button horse for the most part, and that is one of the reasons he likes the added distance for the horse in the 1 1/16-mile Southwest. Discreetness won at a mile in the Smarty Jones.

As for Pruett, he said the horse’s neck win in the Smarty Jones was more than he expected from Discreetness, who was 10-1 against a field that included Southern California shipper Toews On Ice.

“I thought we might have a shot in it,” said Pruett, who before owning horses attended the races at Oaklawn for about 40 years. “I thought we would be competitive. I never expected to win. It’s all new to me. It’s exciting. I love it.”

The complete field for the Southwest, from the rail with riders, is Collected, Martin Garcia; Whitmore, Mike Smith; American Dubai, Walter De La Cruz; Torrontes, Channing Hill; Bird of Trey, Joshua Navarro; Synchrony, Shaun Bridgmohan; Z Royal, Gary Stevens; Gordy Florida, Glenn Corbett; War Stroll, Chris Landeros; Cutacorner, Quincy Hamilton; Siding Spring, Joe Rocco Jr.; Luna De Loco, Ricardo Santana Jr.; Suddenbreakingnews, Luis Quinonez; and Discreetness, Court.

The Southwest will go as the ninth race on a 10-race card that starts at 1 p.m. Central on Monday.