Wednesday=S Trackside Derby Report Cont
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THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2018 THE TDN DERBY TOP 20 WEDNESDAY=S TRACKSIDE by T.D. Thornton DERBY REPORT The final several days prior to the GI Kentucky Derby can seem like a longer wait than the six-month prep season that preceded it. Here are the final TDN Top 20 rankings after an entertaining and intriguing buildup to the first Saturday in May: 1) MAGNUM MOON (c, Malibu MoonBDazzling Song, by Unbridled=s Song) >TDN Rising Star= O-Robert E. & Lawana L. Low. B-Ramona S. Bass, LLC (KY). T-Todd Pletcher. Sales history: $380,000 yrl KEESEP >16. Lifetime Record: GISW, 4-4-0-0, $1,177,800. Apr. 17 TDN Top 20 Rank: 1 Last Start: 1st, GI Arkansas Derby, OP, Apr.14. Cont. p12 (click here) Justify continues to impress in the a.m. IN TDN EUROPE TODAY beneath the Twin Spires | Sherackatthetrack COOLMORE STILL HAS SENSE OF ADVENTURE by Steve Sherack The pedigrees of Coolmore’s 2000 Guineas entrants LOUISVILLE, Ky.--e Five Racing=s Bob Edwards and retired Hall represent proven patterns of success and more recent of Fame jockey and two-time Derby winner Chris McCarron experiments. helped jumpstart another action-packed morning at Churchill Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. Downs Wednesday, joining Ed DeRosa and Joe Kristufek on the backstretch set of the popular Kentucky Derby Morning Show. A mostly cloudy and humid morning with temperatures in the high 60s greeted the Derby/Oaks horses at the 7:30 a.m. training window with the unbeaten >TDN Rising Star= Justify (Scat Daddy) once again headlining the production. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert watched on the track by the gap as the GI Santa Anita Derby hero visited the gate and turned in another powerful 1 1/2-mile gallop beneath Humberto Gomez, who had his hands full of horse for the second straight day. The >First Saturday in May= can=t come soon enough for the stunning chestnut. Streaking GI Santa Anita Oaks heroine and potential GI Kentucky Oaks favorite Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) immediately caught the eye as she entered the track and jogged along the outer rail. Sporting a pair of red front wraps, the dark bay galloped like a very happy horse and was met on the track by co-owner and former rider Jeff Bloom while heading off. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Thursday, May 3, 2018 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Rachel McCaffrey Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Unbeaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite Justify (Scat Daddy) schools in the paddock Vicki Forbes under the Twin Spires Wednesday. | Horsephotos.com [email protected] Marketing Manager FIFTY YEARS AFTER DANCER’S IMAGE DQ, MORE 4 Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS Director of Information Technology Bill Finley reexamines the controversy around the only horse Ray Villa [email protected] to be disqualified from a win in the GI Kentucky Derby. Bookkeeper Terry May DELTA JACKPOT WILL NOT BE RENEWED IN 2018 9 [email protected] Citing concerns over distribution of purses, Louisiana WORLDWIDE INFORMATION horsemen pushed to not run the signature race this year. International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] FRANKFORT PARK, HERNON SOAKING IN OAKS 10 European Editor Amanda Duckworth talks to the parties involved in breeding Emma Berry [email protected] GI Kentucky Oaks favorite Monomoy Girl (Tapizar). 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 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 22 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • MAY 3, 2018 Wednesday=s Trackside Derby Report cont. from p1 The Pletcher quartet were all in action again during this time frame, including >TDN Rising Star= Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy), who was equipped with a pair of white WinStar Farm blinkers. He captured the GII Twin Spires.com Louisiana Derby while sporting the hood for the first time last out. His stablemate Vino Rosso (Curlin) took a nice look at the large crowd assembled along the rail, which included Mike Tirico of NBC Sports, as he exited the track. The lightly raced GI Florida Derby runner-up Hofburg (Tapit), a half-brother to millionaire Emollient (Empire Maker), has generated plenty of chatter on the backstretch with the way he=s been training here throughout the week and he continued to live up to the billing Wednesday. This year=s >wise-guy horse=? Midnight Bisou could go favored in the Kentucky Oaks after tough outside draw for Monomoy Girl | Sherackatthetrack It was all smiles back at the barn as two-time Grade I winner Bolt d=Oro (Medaglia d=Oro) was walking the shedrow following his 1 1/4-mile gallop and trip to the starting gate. The Spendthrift team, including owner B. Wayne Hughes, Ned Toffey and Mark Toothaker, all seemed in good spirits as they chatted with owner/trainer Mick Ruis. Bolt d=Oro will carry the orange-and-purple silks of Spendthrift for the first time in the Derby and will stand at the Lexington, Kentucky, farm upon the conclusion of his racing career. Stabled in the Chad Brown barn along with e Five and Stonestreet=s champion Good Magic (Curlin), the duo drew a very nice audience, including Bill Farish of Lane=s End Farm, while out for their morning baths. Three-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey and Bolt d=Oro pilot Victor Espinoza was one of several onlookers with their camera phones out snapping away. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 22 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • MAY 3, 2018 Stay tuned for Thursday=s report, which will include an update FIFTY YEARS AFTER DANCER=S IMAGE DQ, on intriguing G2 UAE Derby winner Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), who is expected to train over the surface for the first time after MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS clearing quarantine. by Bill Finley There are only a few things that are certain about the 1968 Kentucky Derby. Dancer=s Image, owned by New England car dealer Peter Fuller, crossed the finish line first. He would later be disqualified and placed last after chemists performing WHAT THEY’RE SAYING... post-race tests from that day determined that the colt had Wednesday at Churchill Downs traces of the then illegal medication phenylbutazone in his system. Saturday=s GI Kentucky Derby will be the 144th renewal RUIS CONFIDENT IN ‘BOLT’: “When he dropped from of the race and Dancer=s Image remains the only horse to have first [choice] to fifth or sixth now after he lost the Santa ever been disqualified after an apparent victory. Anita Derby, every week I just put more money in a suitcase to come here to bet on him Saturday,” trainer There=s obviously much more to the story, but every other Mick Ruis said of his charge Bolt d’Oro. “That’s how detail leads down a road that dead-ends in a mystery. Virtually confident we are.” no one believes that Fuller or trainer Lou Cavalaris, two EDWARDS ‘REPROGRAMMING’ BROWN: “I’m like Chad’s individuals who never had a hint of scandal in their careers Sherpa,” e Five Racing’s Bob Edwards said of Good before or after the Dancer=s Image Derby, conspired to dope Magic trainer Chad Brown. “I had him move to Boca their horse to win the race. How then, did the Bute get into the Raton, Fla. this winter, a mile from my house. We spent a lot of time together over the Gulfstream season, he was horse=s system? Or, perhaps, was the disqualification the result at the house quite a bit, went to dinner quite a bit, and I of a botched or tampered test? With so much time having reprogrammed him. I’m like Deepak Chopra for Chad.” passed and with most of the people involved in the story having died, these are questions that likely will never be answered. Cont. p5 Horse of the Year HORSE OF A LIFETIME Speed One of the most “ “ spectacular racehorses of the 21st century. – National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Hall of Famer and dual Eclipse Champion Fastest Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner in history; earned highest Beyer Speed Figure ever around two turns (128). Incredibly versatile: G1 winner at 6.5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 furlongs A debut winner by nine lengths at 2. Breed with the Strength of Adena Classic Bloodlines, Inquiries to Ben Walden (859) 221-8757 Classic Performance Dermot Carty (859) 559-4928 Awesome Again – Baby Zip, by Relaunch www.AdenaStallions.com | (859) 987-1798 $85,000 S&N Horse of the Year HORSE OF A LIFETIME Class G1 winners on dirt, turf, and all-weather, from 6 to 12 furlongs. Sire of 214 90+ Beyers in the last 5 years 95 lifetime stakes horses 75% winners to runners $63+ million in progeny earnings 34 Graded stakes winners 11 G1 winners 7 millionaires 5 Champions Breed with the Strength of Adena Classic Bloodlines, Inquiries to Ben Walden (859) 221-8757 Classic Performance Dermot Carty (859) 559-4928 Awesome Again – Baby Zip, by Relaunch www.AdenaStallions.com | (859) 987-1798 $85,000 S&N The Breeding Opportunity OF A LIFETIME Consistently Brilliant Emerging broodmare sire — 68% winners to runners, 13 stakes winners, including Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Justify and 3-time G1 winner and Champion Sprinter Drefong.