Quip to skip Kentucky Derby, point to Preakness

Quip, who won the Tampa Bay Derby and most recently was second in the Arkansas Derby, will bypass the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs and instead be pointed to the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, on May 19 at Pimlico, Elliott Walden, the chief executive officer of co-owner WinStar Farm, said Monday.

“We’re not going to run him,” Walden said from the 2-year-olds in training sale in Ocala, Fla. “We wanted a little more time with him.”

WinStar already has a potent lineup for the Derby, as the farm has ownership interests in Justify, the Derby favorite, along with the highly regarded contenders Audible and Noble Indy.

Quip was originally scheduled to have his final Derby prep in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes on April 7 at Keeneland, but was rerouted to the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn on April 14 to try and win a Grade 1 race.

“We asked a lot of him to go to Oaklawn and try to get him a Grade 1,” Walden said. “We’d like to give him a little more time. This gives us five weeks to the Preakness.”

According to Walden, Rodolphe Brisset, the trainer of Quip, “called me and said he wanted a little more time, and I was in favor of that, too.”

Quip would have been the first Derby starter for Brisset, who has been on his own for a year after leaving the longtime employ of Bill Mott.

“That was a big decision by a young trainer,” Walden said. “Most wouldn’t do that.”

Florent Geroux had been riding Quip. He is now without a Derby mount, though WinStar and trainer Todd Pletcher have yet to name a rider for Noble Indy, and it stands to reason Geroux would be a strong possibility to pick up that mount.

Pletcher on Monday said the assignment was still undecided, but he had a similar approach last year when he had multiple potential starters, waiting until the last moment to name a rider for Patch in case something unforeseen happened to one of his other runners. This year, Pletcher already has Javier Castellano on Audible. Luis Saez on Magnum Moon, and John Velazquez on Vino Rosso – and WinStar has Mike Smith on Justify – so it’s highly likely Pletcher and Walden are keeping Noble Indy open for now in case one of those riders unexpectedly became available.

The defections of Quip and Gronkowski on Monday allowed Combatant and Instilled Regard to move into the top 20 on points and be guaranteed spots in the Derby field.

Snapper Sinclair is now the bubble horse, ranked 21st. He is owned by a partnership. Earlier Monday, Jeff Bloom, who manages the partnership, said Snapper Sinclair would run in the American Turf, and though that is still the likely plan, Bloom on Monday afternoon said the Derby was "unlikely, but a possibility."

"I wouldn't rule it out," Bloom said of the Derby, "but the most logical race is the American Turf. At this point, we don't have to make a decision."

Blended Citizen is now ranked 22nd. He will run if he can get in, according to his trainer, Doug O’Neill.

◗ Solomini, third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby, worked three furlongs in 35.20 seconds on Monday morning at Santa Anita. It was the fastest time of 34 at the distance. He will have one more work at Santa Anita before departing for Kentucky for the Derby.