Trendsetter gets class relief in Super Derby
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Trendsetter has racked up minor prizes behind runaway winners in his last three starts in graded stakes, but the $250,000 Super Derby will run through him Saturday at Louisiana Downs. The gelding is the obvious class of the field and seems supremely well-spotted by trainer Ben Colebrook.
“I thought the timing for the [Grade 3] Oklahoma Derby looked a little better, but I got a call from the jockey’s agent down there, Anthony Martin, and he told me I really needed to look hard at this race,” Colebrook said. “Then I started to look at who was in there. You never want to put the cart before the horse, but you’ve got to say he’s in the right spot.”
Since scoring a 32-1 upset in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland in April, Trendsetter has carried on well in a nomadic 3-year-old campaign. He has shipped to Aqueduct, Thistledown, and Mountaineer Park for three Grade 3 tries, finishing in the money in the Peter Pan, Ohio Derby, and West Virginia Derby. In the West Virginia Derby, he ceded six pounds to the winner, Zihnal, and finished second by 6 1/4 lengths.
This series of stakes for 3-year-olds was built for runners like Trendsetter, who failed to break into the Triple Crown but found their footing later on. The 1 1/8-mile Super Derby is a decidedly softer spot, and the Colebrook trainee has been made the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the field of eight.
“I was looking at it, and he’s never really had a fast pace in front of him” at 1 1/8 miles, Colebrook said. “It looks like there’s enough speed in there. Maybe those kinds of horses that aren’t as seasoned, they’re probably going to try to go out there and see if they can hold on. Hopefully, that’ll be an honest enough pace that he can close into.”
Quarry, a gelding trained by Jerry Gourneau, is the only other graded stakes winner in the field, having won the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at Century Mile last month with a 69 Beyer Speed Figure. Gourneau has never entered a starter at Louisiana Downs.
Sav’n Money is the only other runner with stakes experience for trainer Wayne Catalano. The Virginia-bred colt finished fourth in the $125,000 Star de Naskra, a state-restricted stakes at Colonial Downs, in July. He came back to finish fourth in a restricted allowance last month.
Trainer Steve Asmussen, who won the Super Derby in 2018 and 2019, entered a pair of outsiders in this year’s edition. Marc will switch back to dirt off a close third in a conditioned turf allowance at Lone Star in July, while the local maiden Cocked Pistol will step up in his third career start.
Renegade Red is one of two last-out maiden winners in the field and pulled clear by 12 1/2 lengths in a race originally scheduled for the turf. He earned a 70 Beyer for trainer Gary Scherer.
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