Quip rerouted to Arkansas Derby

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby picked up a new player over the weekend when Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip scratched from the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and rolled into the Oaklawn backstretch at 4:30 a.m. Saturday.

Quip tracked Sunday at Oaklawn, where he will start as one of the top choices in the Arkansas Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race that closes out the meet on Saturday. The Arkansas Derby is a points race for the Kentucky Derby.

Magnum Moon, who could go favored in the Arkansas Derby, had his final work for the race over the weekend, as did Solomini, who finished second to Magnum Moon in last month’s Grade 2 Rebel at Oaklawn. Combatant and Tenfold are now likely for the Arkansas Derby, with decisions to be made after the horses breeze Monday, said trainer Steve Asmussen.

Quip was redirected to the Arkansas Derby for several reasons, said Rudolphe Brisset, who trains the horse for WinStar Farm, China Horse Club International, and SF Racing. Some of those owners also are partners in Justify, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday who at one point had been targeting the Arkansas Derby.

“The fact that Justify was rerouted to the Santa Anita Derby kind of opened a spot for WinStar, and China Horse Club, and SF Racing to run one here,” Brisset said, “and it looks like we make sense. We are the one to come here.”

Quip is coming off his best race, a win in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby for which he earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 94.

Brisset said the Grade 1 status of the Arkansas Derby was another appeal for Quip. The Blue Grass was a Grade 2.

“I think if we can get the job done, it would be great for the horse because it’s a Grade 1,” Brisset said. “That can set up his life, too, to win a Grade 1.”

Florent Geroux, who has ridden Quip in each of his starts, has the mount in the Arkansas Derby.

Brisset, 34, is a native of Tours, France, who was a jockey in his home country before coming to the United States in 2005. He first went to work for trainer Patrick Biancone and later spent 10 years working with Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. As an assistant to Mott, Brisset worked closely with a number of top horses, including champion Royal Delta and Belmont Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Drosselmeyer.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be around a lot of good horses,” Brisset said.

Brisset went out on his own as a trainer last year. Quip is his first stakes winner.

“We decided to start on our own April 1, 2017, so it’s been one year almost to the day,” he said.

Brisset has a 20-horse public racing stable, and that number will grow soon with the addition of 2-year-olds. He has divisions of his stable at Keeneland and Churchill Downs. Quip came to Brisset through his affiliation with WinStar president Elliott Walden.

“Mr. Walden knew me as an assistant trainer for Bill, working together for quite some time,” said Brisset.

Brisset had gone out on his own and was in Kentucky when WinStar approached him about working with some of the operation’s 2-year-olds. Brisset signed on to develop some young horses who were sent to other trainers and some who remained in his barn, among them Quip.

Quip won his first time out of the box Sept. 23 at Churchill Downs. It was a six-furlong maiden special weight, and he was a head winner while covering the distance in a sharp 1:10.60.

“Quip was a very immature horse [mentally] when he was 2, but with lot of class for sure,” said Brisset. “For us, him winning the first time out, that was really a sign of talent because we don’t get them ready to win first time out. I think his class took over.”

Quip backed up the win with a first-level allowance score in his two-turn debut Oct. 19 at Keeneland. He proceeded to run seventh in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November at Churchill before coming out a winner at 3 in the Tampa Bay Derby, scoring by a length over Flameaway.

“He really made a big change from 2 to 3, physically and mentally,” Brisset said. “In his first race this year, he showed a lot of courage, and he showed he belonged with those kind of horses.

“I think he has a lot going for him.”

Magnum Moon worked at his Palm Beach Downs base Saturday morning in Florida, going a half-mile in a bullet 48.60 seconds and galloping out five-eighths in 1:01.80, according to clocker Bryan Walls.

Solomini worked at his Santa Anita base on Sunday morning, going six furlongs in company in 1:13.60.

– additional reporting by Jay Privman, Mike Welsch

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