Prat Falls Into Kentucky Derby Winner
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Prat Falls Into Kentucky Derby Winner This is not merely the account of the agent. I have been texting with him and talking to him on the phone since January and following and chronicling every step of this, the ups and downs, as it happened. It is a behind the scenes look at a jockey and his agent's long arduous journey to the Derby and their pursuit of the Derby dream and finding the right mount, in this case a last-minute 65-1 shot. Every January, well before the roses are in bloom, jockeys and their agents begin the arduous and often times stressful task of finding the Kentucky Derby winner. It is a pressure-packed four months, first finding a horse early on, then hoping he’s good enough to continue on the Derby trail, then hoping he stays sound, then hoping the trainer sticks with them and doesn’t start shopping around for a bigger name jockey. All the while, the agent has to keep his eyes and ears open for potential back-up mounts just in case. He also has to maintain good relationships with all the trainers because you never know when he is going to have a live mount. Many times you will have two horses with equal talent, and if they go their separate ways you’re in good shape, letting the horses decide your Derby mount for you. But on some occasions they will wind up in the same race and that is when the agent starts having sleepless nights, not so much getting it right, but making sure he doesn’t get it wrong. There is nothing more disheartening, frustrating, and gut-wrenching than seeing the horse you didn’t choose go on and win the Derby. Some riders, like Joel Rosario and Drayden Van Dyke, are in the enviable position of having latched onto top-class 2-year-olds, in their case champion Game Winner and grade 1 winner Improbable, respectively, both for Derby guru Bob Baffert. Van Dyke eventually would lose the mount to a bigger name, Irad Ortiz Jr. The young rider also had a brilliant undefeated colt named Instagrand in his back pocket just in case Jerry Hollendorfer was able to get him ready for the Derby. French-born Flavien Prat and his agent Derek Lawson started off the year with three possibilities still in the unproven stage, and two proven horses. Prat was the regular rider of all five horses and it was Lawson’s job to sort it all out. The proven horses were the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Gunmetal Gray, who was second to Game Winner in the grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes and fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and the Dick Mandella- trained Extra Hope, who was fourth in the Bob Hope Stakes and third in the grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity. The three unproven horses were a promising maiden named Omaha Beach also from the Mandella barn; an impressive 9 3/4-length maiden winner named Gray Magician, trained by Peter Miller, who started off the year by finishing a close fourth in the Sham Stakes; and a California-bred named Galilean, who had romped by nine lengths in the state-bred King Glorious Stakes, running the mile in a sharp 1:35 flat. The son of Uncle Mo also was trained by Hollendorfer, so Prat had two shots from the same barn. The list quickly shrunk when Prat and Lawson chose to ride Gray Magician in the Jan. 5 Sham Stakes over Gunmetal Gray, who rallied in the stretch to win by one length under Mike Smith, with Gray Magician finishing fourth. Wrong decision number one, but still way to early to fret over. There were bigger fish to fry as they say. Now it was down to four. On Jan. 31, in a one- mile allowance race, they chose to ride Extra Hope over Gray Magician and scored a 3 1/4- length victory in a snappy 1:34 3/5. A good result, but Gunmetal Gray and Gray Magician looked to be out of the mix as potetisl Derby mounts. Then things started to really change. When Omaha Beach broke his maiden on Feb. 2, romping by nine lengths in the slop, blazing the seven furlongs in 1:21 flat, he jumped right to the head of the list, soon to be followed two weeks later by Galilean after he cruised home an easy winner of the Cal Cup Derby. February would be a quiet month, except for a trip to Laurel to be reunited with Gray Magician in the Miracle Wood Stakes, in which he finished second to an up-and-coming star named Alwaysmining. Omaha Beach was scheduled to run next in a one-mile allowance race at Santa Anita on March 1, but the colt came out of his maiden score with a minor quarter crack that was patched up and all looked good. But rather than run back on March 1 it was decided to give the colt some extra time and instead point for the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on March 16. Everything was still on schedule, but when the March 9 San Felipe Stakes was cancelled it resulted in a mass exodus from California to the Rebel Stakes. Now what had looked to be a fairly easy spot became a hotbed of talent with Game Winner and Improbable both detoured there, along with Gunmetal Gray, Extra Hope, and most important, Galilean. Prat had ridden four of the starters. That left Lawson with an all-important and perplexing decision. Does he ride Omaha Beach, who had just suffered a quarter crack and had never won going two turns, but had a world of ability, or Galilean, who had won three Cal-bred stakes, the last two at a mile and 1 1/16 miles, and was being compared to another Cal-bred, California Chrome, who had taken the same path. Lawson, after conferring with Prat, decided to go with Galilean, who he felt was more of a certainty, having the pedigree, having already won going two turns, and not having a quarter crack hanging over their heads. But with so many horses now heading to the Rebel, there was still a ray of hope that there would be no conflict at all. If Oaklawn decided to split the race there was a 50-50 chance Omaha Beach and Galilean would draw into different divisions and they would get to ride both horses. Lawson was given the impression that Mandella was going to wait until entries to name a rider on Omaha Beach, but when Mike Smith was available he named him to ride. So Prat lost Omaha Beach for the second time. As it turned out, both colts did indeed draw into separate divisions and Prat wound up back on Gunmetal Gray in the other division, while Smith rode both Mandella horses, Omaha Beach and Extra Hope. So Prat’s Derby chances now rested squarely on the shoulders of Galilean, who finished third behind Long Range Toddy and Improbable, while Omaha Beach ran a gutsy race, holding off Game Winner’s late charge to win by a nose. It appeared as if they had chosen the wrong horse, but there was still time to make amends in the Arkansas Derby. Meanwhile, Baffert decided to take Drayden Van Dyke off Improbable and named Jose Ortiz for the Arkansas Derby even though Ortiz was the rider for Tacitus. Prat still had other possibilities. Hollendorfer named Prat to ride Instagrand in the Santa Anita Derby following an excellent third in the Gotham Stakes under Javier Castellano. Instagrand ran a game race to finish third behind Roadster and Game Winner, but he no longer was considered a Kentucky Derby horse. So everything was riding on Galilean at Oaklawn. When he could do no better than fifth, beaten 10 lengths by, guess who, Omaha Beach, who now became the Kentucky Derby favorite, Prat was not a happy camper. He had the Derby favorite in his grasp, but let it slip away, and now was in danger of having no Derby mount at all. Galilean was out of the picture. A little incident had taken place before the Arkansas Derby that appeared to be of little significance at the time. Bill Mott, for whom Prat had only ridden one time last year in a maiden race, offered him the mount on Country House in the Arkansas Derby on the recommendation of several from the (co-owners) Foxwood family team and Alex Solis who were fans of Prat. But they were committed to Galilean. So just put that in your back pocket for now. One morning Baffert had casually mentioned to Lawson if he was interested in riding Improbable. Prat was a big fan of the horse, but before they had time to even think about it, WinStar’s Elliott Walden named Irad Ortiz Jr. on the colt. There was still an opening for a big mount, as Mike Smith, who won the Santa Anita Derby aboard Roadster, had a choice now between the improving Baffert colt and Omaha Beach. Prat and Lawson waited with bated breath for his decision. When he decided on Omaha Beach, they had lost the chance to ride the colt for the third time. But now Roadster was open and Prat was a logical choice. But one of Roadsters owners had a relationship with fellow Frenchman Florent Geroux and that ended any chance to ride that colt. There were now just a few mounts left for the Derby and Lawson thought he had a great chance to land on Louisiana Derby runner-up Spinoff for Todd Pletcher and the Wertheimer brothers.