DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Trainer Brendan Walsh spent six years during the early and mid-aughts working in Dubai. Jockey Jose Ortiz got to this place for the first time Wednesday, but he’s riding like he’s been here all his life.
After guiding Coal Front to victory Saturday in the Godolphin Mile, his first mount at Meydan Racecourse, Ortiz piloted Plus Que Parfait to a win in the Group 2, $2.5 million UAE Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Omaha Beach, who has risen rapidly in the 3-year-old division in recent months, worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday in preparation for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 13.
Working with a stablemate, Omaha Beach ran two wide and pulled clear under Alex Solis to record the quickest time of 25 works at the distance. Solis, the former jockey, assists trainer Richard Mandella and occasionally works horses.
Mandella timed Omaha Beach in 47.16 seconds and the colt finished several lengths clear of his stablemate.
Mind Control, a multiple stakes winner around one turn, will make his next start at Aqueduct in the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs and not the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at nine furlongs, trainer Gregg Sacco said Friday.
That decision effectively removes Mind Control from consideration for the Kentucky Derby. Mind Control has 30 qualifying points for the Derby, which as of Friday put him 11th in the standings under the system used by Churchill Downs to determine the 20 horses for the Kentucky Derby.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Blue Point went down to the 1,200-meter straight-course start of the 2018 Al Quoz Sprint expected to emerge a winner of the Group 1 turf dash. Instead, he never emerged from the starting gate. Blue Point acted up behind the gate, cut himself, and was scratched.
Oh well – there’s still 2019. Blue Point, 5, is a year older, at least as fast, and potentially wiser going into the $2 million Al Quoz on Saturday at Meydan.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ask the trainers of the leading contenders in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby to talk about the opposition, and none seems to know what to expect when they get to Maximum Security. Ask Maximum Security’s trainer, Jason Servis, how he feels the undefeated former $16,000 claimer will perform in the important Kentucky Derby prep, and his answer is pretty much the same.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite his fourth-place finish as the 6-5 choice in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2, Hidden Scroll was pegged the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 3-year-olds drawn Wednesday for the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 1 Florida Derby highlights a 14-race program Saturday that includes six other stakes and will offer a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, with a carryover of more than $3 million if the jackpot is not hit Thursday or Friday.
Hidden Scroll
Hard Spun–Sheba Queen, by Empire Maker
Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms
Flashy debut winner Hidden Scroll was the victim of a brutal pace when he faded to fourth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this month behind Code of Honor. Hidden Scroll, who is from an outstanding family typical of Juddmonte’s program, gets a chance at redemption in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby.
The first time Shug McGaughey ran horses in the Kentucky Derby, he was all of 33 years old and on the fast track to what has proven to be a Hall of Fame career. He was hoping a Derby win would come quickly, “to get it over with,” as he put it this week.
But it took another 29 years for McGaughey to finally tick off that box and get a Derby win, with Orb in 2013. And the wait – which included a runner-up finish by Easy Goer in 1989 – made it all the sweeter, he said.
“I think it made me appreciate it that much more,” McGaughey said on a national teleconference.
WHO’S HOT
The one-two finishers from both the Louisiana Derby and Sunland Park Derby last weekend are the four newcomers to this week’s Derby Watch top 20, which is increasingly driven by the points list as Derby Day draws closer because you can’t win it if you’re not in it. By My Standards and Spinoff, the top two in the Louisiana Derby, are both 20-1 on the Kentucky Derby line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper. Watchmaker has both Cutting Humor and Anothertwistafate, the top two in the Sunland Park Derby, at 30-1.
Trainer Todd Pletcher’s 3-year-olds are starting to come to hand, punctuated by Cutting Humor’s track-record win Sunday in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby.
Pletcher on Saturday sent out Spinoff to a close runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and, on March 9, the promising Outshine was second in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Downs Derby.
The horses are Pletcher’s leading Kentucky Derby points earners, with Cutting Humor sitting fifth with 50 on the latest list put out by Churchill Downs. Spinoff is ninth with 40 and Outshine is 20th with 20.
