THIS SIDE UP: STILL AMENDING the DERBY AGENDA Parislongchamp=S G1 Prix Du Cadran
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SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 2021 NINE IN LINE FOR COMPETITIVE WOOD THIS SIDE UP: Realistic cases can be made for six or seven of the nine 3-year- STILL AMENDING THE old males signed on for Saturday's GII Wood Memorial S. as the New York staple GI Kentucky Derby prep returns with a DERBY AGENDA competitive renewal after a one-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Given the narrowest of nods on the morning line is Klaravich Stables' Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro). Unable to factor in his first two outings, one sprinting on dirt and one routing on yielding turf, the $240,000 Keeneland September buy sprung to life when returned to dirt over Saturday's nine-furlong trip with a clear graduation here Dec. 13. He followed that up with a strong rally to win the local GIII Withers S. Feb. 6. The waters get significantly deeper in here though, and one need look no further than the presence of Godolphin's undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Prevalence (Medaglia d'Oro) to confirm that. Cont. p7 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Essential Quality preparing this week at Keeneland | EquiSport Photos PRINCESS ZOE KICKS OFF AMBITIOUS CAMPAIGN The G1 Prix du Cadran scorer has the G1 Prix de l’Arc de by Chris McGrath Triomphe as a key target this year. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. We should have known better. The moment we deceived ourselves that we had a crossroads of perfect symmetry, with four standout colts converging inexorably on the first Saturday in May, one promptly limped off the trail and then last weekend another was beaten at odds-on. Nobody, then, will be making any assumptions when the other two complete their GI Kentucky Derby preparations, Concert Tour (Street Sense) in the GI Arkansas Derby next week and Essential Quality (Tapit) as the geographical and narrative pivot of three rehearsals staged coast to coast Saturday. That said, the juvenile champion gets a home game, round a circuit where he has already won two Grade Is. It will be on the margins of East and West, then, that we seem more likely to see a breakout after the manner of Known Agenda (Curlin) last week. Not that anyone in the Greatest Honour (Tapit) camp is too downbeat after he had to settle for third behind that old rival in the GI Curlin Florida Derby. I was heartened by the fidelity of colleague T.D. Thornton to Greatest Honour, who retained the No. 1 spot in his Derby Top 12 this week. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Senior Contributing Editor Saturday, April 3, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb ‘TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality (Tapit) looks to maintain a spotless record while Kristen Lomasson facing a field of nine in Saturday's GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland. For a preview from Katie Ritz, including a video feature, click here. | Coady Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES ET Race Click for TV Social Media Strategist 2:21p Bay Shore S.-GIII, AQU TJCIS PPs FS2 Justina Severni 3:25p Carter H.-GI, AQU TJCIS PPs FS2 Associate Producer 3:51p Appalachian S.-GII, KEE TJCIS PPs TVG Katie Ritz 4:24p Commonwealth S.-GIII, KEE TJCIS PPs TVG 4:31p Excelsior S.-GIII, AQU TJCIS PPs FS2 Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes 4:57p Shakertown S.-GII, KEE TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] 5:09p Gazelle S.-GIII, AQU TJCIS PPs FS2 5:14p Providencia S.-GIII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG Marketing Manager 5:30p Central Bank Ashland S.-GI, KEE TJCIS PPs TVG Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen 5:48p Santa Anita Oaks-GII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG Director of IT & Accounting 5:58p Wood Memorial S.-GII, AQU TJCIS PPs NBCSN/TVG Ray Villa 6:02p Madison S.-GI, KEE TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] [email protected] 6:35p Toyota Blue Grass S.-GII, KEE TJCIS PPs NBCSN/TVG 6:54p Fantasy S.-GIII, OP TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 7:15p Runhappy Santa Anita Derby-GI, SA TJCIS PPs NBCSN/TVG International Editor 7:46p Royal Heroine S.-GII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 16 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • APRIL 3, 2021 Because these adolescent horses seldom crown a curve of relentless improvement under the Twin Spires: very often, they will need to have soaked up some adversity on the way, to have absorbed a tough lesson or two before regrouping. Greatest Honour has been on the punchbag all winter and was entitled to drop a glove this once, especially with such a messy trip. We know that his trainer will always have been working back from one date, and one date only. With that date now looming so large, however, there's a kind of exquisite tension for all these horsemen, trying to achieve an equilibrium between their own restraint, and the fitness and seasoning of their charges. Remember that's exactly what they do every day, with horses at every level. It's just that the whole process is so much more visible here, because of the extremity of the test and the depth of the associated lore. Many of us profess a sentimental attachment to the old school, with an emphasis on grounding, but modern trainers make their own rules. Obviously last year's race was an outlier, its postponement as ruinous to other horses as it was helpful to the raw Authentic (Into Mischief). But in 2018, we had a Triple Crown winner unraced before Feb. 18; and the following year, the first past the post had started off in midwinter under a $16,000 tag, and his works might have been as usefully clocked with a sundial as a stopwatch. Cont. p4 Medina Spirit has only been beaten by Life Is Good | Benoit HORSE OF THE YEAR GUN RUNNER IS THE LEADING SIRE OF 2YOS IN 2021 WITH AN AVERAGE PRICE PER 2YO OF $592,500 Hip 181 sold for $1,700,000 at the Gulfstream Sale 859.873.7053 www.threechimneys.com 2021 Stud Fee: $50,000 S&N @ three_chimneys BUY LGB, LLC 2021 / Photo by Z TRUE TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 16 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • APRIL 3, 2021 This Side Up cont. Bob Baffert's mastery of the definitive challenge of his calling now puts him within reach of a seventh Derby, and an outright record, even after losing the services of Life Is Good (Into Mischief). In that colt's lamentable absence from the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, we have a twist in the astonishing tale of Medina Spirit (Protonico), the $1,000 short yearling who somehow found his way into the most lavishly stocked barn in the land. But nothing should surprise us with the genius of his trainer. Remember that Medina Spirit, having been pinhooked to a giddy $35,000, was actually twice as expensive as Real Quiet (Quiet American)! He would be unbeaten but for Life Is Good and he's been working the house down since a minor throat procedure. Baffert plus Medina Spirit is like Goliath teaming up with David, but this race does offer romantics the option of Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}), bred by Hall of Famer Ron McAnally. Undefeated Rock Your World switches to dirt | Benoit You imagine John Sadler has not been short of humorous counsel on the backside, especially as the veteran McAnally, who nowadays supervises just with a handful of animals, managed a graded stakes placing for Rock Your World's older sister She's Our Charm during the winter. McAnally trained both the parents, namely Candy Ride (Arg) and dual Grade I-placed juvenile Charm the Maker (Empire Maker); and actually McAnally and wife Deborah bred the first three dams. But Sadler is certainly rewriting Derby rules with this colt, switching from turf after teaching him about dirt with some pretty heavy duty drills. The last four runnings have been divided between Baffert and John Shirreffs, who intriguingly perseveres with Parnelli (Quality Road) as though he has more ability than we've been seeing of late. Recent works suggest that the blinkers are helping, much as they did Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) when Parnelli ran the GII Louisiana Derby winner to a neck in the fall. Cont. p5 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 16 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • APRIL 3, 2021 This Side Up cont. Interesting to see a Californian shipper taking on Essential Quality, in Rombauer (Twirling Candy), though the most feasible GII Toyota Blue Grass S. wildcard is surely Known Agenda's raw but devastating barnmate Untreated (Nyquist). In the GII Wood Memorial (presented by Resorts World Casino), meanwhile, a similarly late play from Prevalance (Medaglia d'Oro) will help Godolphin decide whether he's progressing fast enough to join their champion in Louisville.