A precious few each year get to say they bred a Kentucky Derby runner. With thousands of Thoroughbreds born each year, it’s a longshot – especially for smaller programs outside of Kentucky that raise a relative handful of foals.
But for Ohio-based Bruce Ryan, who bred Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba, it’s a longshot that he’s around to enjoy this spring at all.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Holiday or not, it was back to some serious business for White Abarrio on Easter Sunday at Gulfstream Park. The $1 million Florida Derby winner turned in the first of his three scheduled works leading up to the May 7 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs with an easy three furlongs in 34.49 followed by a very impressive-looking gallop out.
Un Ojo is bound for the Kentucky Derby after a Saturday morning work that satisfied his trainer, Ricky Courville. The drill came at the horse’s Copper Crowne training center base near Lafayette, La.
Un Ojo worked five furlongs in 1:03.15 on a fast track, Courville said. The horse went by himself. Un Ojo is the one-eyed winner of the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel at Oaklawn; the 50 points he earned in the February race secured his spot in the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Slow Down Andy has been withdrawn from consideration for the Kentucky Derby after recently spiking a temperature at Keeneland, trainer Doug O’Neill confirmed Saturday morning.
Slow Down Andy had made the 20-horse cutoff for the May 7 Derby by winning the March 27 Sunland Derby, but the Nyquist colt missed a scheduled workout here this weekend after taking ill. The news was first reported by Horse Racing Nation.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Charge It and Simplification, the second and third finishers respectively in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 2 at Gulfstream Park, each turned in the first of their three scheduled works prior to the Kentucky Derby approximately 30 minutes and 40 miles apart early Friday morning in South Florida.
Taiba
Gun Runner – Needmore Flattery, by Flatter
Bred in Kentucky by Bruce C. Young ($140,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds; $1.7 million Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream 2-year-old purchase by Gary Young, agent for Zedan Racing)
Gun Runner has emerged from prep season for the spring classics with an embarrassment of riches. The record-setting young sire added Taiba to his Kentucky Derby candidates last weekend and could wind up with multiple entrants in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks.
The curse of Apollo was lifted four years ago. But the curse of Leonatus endures.
Until Justify came along and won the Kentucky Derby in 2018, no horse had won the race without having competed as a 2-year-old since Apollo in 1882.
Leonatus, who won the Derby in 1883, largely has been forgotten to history, even though his record on the track and at stud are terrific.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even with 40 points from his runner-up finish in the April 2 Jeff Ruby Steaks, Tawny Port will wheel back Saturday at Keeneland in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes, the final qualifier for the 148th Kentucky Derby.
Trainer Brad Cox said he is running Tawny Port just two weeks later primarily “to see how he can do on the dirt,” even though the 40 points earned by the Pioneerof the Nile colt in the Ruby figure to be sufficient to make the 20-horse cutoff for the May 7 Derby at Churchill Downs. Points for the $400,000 Lexington are awarded on a 20-8-4-2 basis.
Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, 1 1/8 miles, Aqueduct, April 9, 2022
(100 Derby qualifying points for first, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth)
Winner: Mo Donegal, by Uncle Mo
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Joel Rosario
Owner: Donegal Racing
Beyer Speed Figure: 96
