NEW ORLEANS – Seeking his first Kentucky Derby, the trainer Chad Brown on Saturday at Fair Grounds came up with a second serious Derby hope.
Five weeks after Brown sent Paladin here from his Payson Park base in Florida to win the Risen Star Stakes, he shipped Emerging Market from Payson to win the Louisiana Derby on Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS – Lord knows how many times Steve Asmussen has driven the 500 miles separating Fair Grounds Racecourse and Oaklawn Park. Every winter, back and forth, back and forth, between his strings at the two tracks.
The miles add up – hundreds of thousands – a man who has spent a lifetime consumed with horses still fiercely driven by work.
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Incredibolt rebounded from his non-effort in the Grade 3 Holy Bull with a professional victory, albeit against modest company, in last Saturday’s Virginia Derby. He did go 2 for 2 at Churchill last year with a stakes victory and will now train up to the Kentucky Derby.
In the final furlong of the $500,000 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs last Saturday, one might have thought that Incredibolt joined the race late. With an incredible burst on the rail, the 3-year-old colt sprinted far ahead of a tangled mess of horses on the way to a four-length victory.
The new team behind the familiar Pin Oak Stud has had its share of heartbreak in the last few years. But hope springs eternal in Thoroughbred racing, especially in the spring.
After one Pin Oak colt, Incredibolt, seemingly punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby by winning last Saturday’s Virginia Derby, another hopeful, Chaos Agent, looks to do the same in this coming weekend’s Grade 3 Jeff Ruby, another prep offering major Kentucky Derby points. The colts carry the gray and blue silks now associated with the Bernhard family, whose patriarch, Jim Bernhard, died in November.
Churchill Downs in Louisville has raised the purses for 16 of its stakes races scheduled for this year’s spring meeting. That includes a $500,000 boost for the Turf Classic, bringing the purse of the Grade 1 race to $1.5 million, according to a stakes schedule released on Monday.
Paladin and Chief Wallabee, the two favorites in Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch, closed as the co-favorites in the fifth Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool at 8-1, separated by only $982 in betting, according to results provided by Churchill Downs, the pool's administrator.
The $500,000 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs on Saturday more closely resembled a grand melee at the top of the stretch, with eight horses madly scrambling for racing room that didn’t exist. It was a field without order, a race without a true leader.
Then all became clear. The clouds parted for Incredibolt, and the 3-year-old colt sprang forward and left the rabble far behind. In the space of a furlong, he sprinted clear to a four-length victory, earning 50 qualifying points to launch into Kentucky Derby contention.
