Wicked Strong breezes for Derby

ELMONT, N.Y. – The two weeks leading up to the 2009 Kentucky Derby were torture for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

His 3-year-old Quality Road – the winner of the Florida Derby and Fountain of Youth Stakes – went from potential Derby favorite to out of the race due to a quarter crack on a front foot that needed time to heal.

For the first time since then, Jerkens has another Derby contender in Wicked Strong, the winner of the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 5. Sixteen days out from Derby 140, Jerkens was feeling much better about actually being at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

“As soon as you open your mouth, something happens, but we’ve been lucky with him. He’s run hard races, he’s run on all different surfaces, and he’s come out sound,” Jerkens said about Wicked Strong. “I’d have to think for something to pop up this late in the game, you’d have to be really unlucky as far as any soundness issue.”

On Thursday, in his first workout since upsetting the Wood at 9-1, Wicked Strong certainly looked sound and happy as he breezed four furlongs in 49.60 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

On a sunny but chilly spring day, Wicked Strong came out around 9:50 a.m. in the second set following the renovation break. After backing up to the three-furlong pole, Wicked Strong, at first alongside a pony but nearing the wire by himself, galloped an easy mile before breaking off at the three-furlong pole, entering the far turn.

Under exercise rider Kelvin Pahal, Wicked Strong went his first eighth in 12.13 seconds, and with his ears up and Pahal barely moving, Wicked Strong hit the wire in 36.68 seconds. From the wire to the seven-furlong pole, which is located entering the first turn, Wicked Strong went another eighth in 12.92 seconds. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.27.

“I felt if the majority of it was around the turns, it would prevent him from working too fast,” Jerkens said about breaking off at the three-furlong pole for a half-mile breeze. “Not only that, because the race is a mile and a quarter and you’d like to keep the horse’s mindset at that kind of thing, I thought having a nice, leisurely gallop for a mile before he broke off was important.”

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Jerkens said he liked what he saw from Wicked Strong in the 12 days following his authoritative win in the Wood.

“I think we’re in good shape, looking at him,” Jerkens said. “He’s a little bit on the light side, but I don’t see him any lighter after running that hard and that tough a race. I didn’t think he lost a pound. I was really happy about that.”

Jerkens said Wicked Strong would have one more work – six or seven furlongs – next Thursday or Friday at Belmont before vanning to Louisville a day or two after the breeze. Jerkens had originally mentioned flying the horse April 28 to Kentucky but has changed his mind.

“He’s never been on a plane before. He [vanned] up and down from Florida twice and shipped very well on the van,” Jerkens said. “I feel a lot safer doing that than going on a plane and not knowing what to expect.”

Jerkens also said Wicked Strong likely would have a three-furlong blowout at Churchill two days before the Derby.

Samraat, the Wood Memorial runner-up, remained at Belmont Park on Thursday, when he galloped a casual 1 1/4 miles in advance of a scheduled Friday workout. Though trainer Rick Violette had hoped to be able to move back to Aqueduct, it is now expected that Samraat will work at Belmont.

Barn 10 at Aqueduct – which is not Violette’s – remained under quarantine as a precaution after a horse who died in that barn April 10 tested positive for a low amount of EHV-1, equine herpesvirus.

Uncle Sigh, fifth in the Wood Memorial, also was expected to work Friday at Belmont.