Rock Your World, Hot Rod Charlie take first tour of the track
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rock Your World and Hot Rod Charlie, two of the Kentucky Derby favorites, made simultaneous first appearances on the racetrack Monday morning after arriving here from California the previous afternoon via equine charter. Both were out for very light exercise after having their final pre-race workouts Saturday at Santa Anita.
Rock Your World, whose front-running victory in the April 3 Santa Anita Derby upped his career record to 3 for 3, has settled in without incident in Barn 43, said trainer John Sadler.
“It looks like he traveled well,” said Sadler. “We took him out for a light jog just to get him acclimatized. So far, we’re looking good.”
With the presumed Derby front-runner Caddo River having defected Sunday, the role of pacesetter might now fall to Rock Your World.
“He’s got a high cruising speed that he can carry at a classic distance,” Sadler said early Monday. “He’s not a need-the-lead type, but he doesn’t have to be way back. He can get a position and sustain it for a distance. That’s what we believe. Strategy will be determined after the draw” on Tuesday.
Hot Rod Charlie, winner of the March 20 Louisiana Derby after being campaigned primarily in California, is stabled in close proximity to Rock Your World in Barn 41.
“It took us a while to figure him out, but he’s happy, we’re happy, and we like the way things are going,” said Doug O’Neill, who arrived Sunday on a separate flight.
Hot Rod Charlie won the Louisiana Derby on the lead, but O’Neill seems resigned to the colt reverting to the kind of stalking tactics he used in prior starts.
“He’s versatile,” said O’Neill, who won the 2012 Derby with I’ll Have Another and the 2016 running with Nyquist. “In a race like this, you’ve got to be versatile. He’s got some good gate speed, so he can put himself in the race.”
Flavien Prat, who won the 2019 Derby via disqualification aboard Country House, will ride Hot Rod Charlie. O’Neill called Prat “a phenomenal jockey” who has been working the colt with regularity.
“He knows the horse really well,” O’Neill said. “It’ll be interesting where we draw, but regardless of where that is, I’m hoping for a good, clean break. After that, Flavien will just play the pace.”