Run For The Roses

[Smithers]

SIPHONIC, among the early favourites for the Kentucky Derby despite having lost in his two starts this season, will miss the Classics after having been found to have suffered some "wear and tear" in his off-for ankle.
Siphonic won the Grade 2 Lane’s End Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland last autumn before finishing a good third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile behind Johannesburg. He won the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity in his final start of the season and this year was second in the Grade 2 Santa Catalina Stakes prior to a disappointing third in the San Felipe.
“We're going to give him a little rest,” said trainer David Hofmans. “He came out of the San Felipe with a little stiffness in his right front ankle. He x-rayed clean and scanned clean, but he must have twisted the ankle, which is probably why he didn't want to change leads.
“We don’t want to tear him up, so we're just going to back off. We're finished, temporarily, but we'll be back in late summer or early fall.”

[Tony Soprano]

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Came Home, the horse nobody wanted to buy on three different occasions, stamped himself as the early Kentucky Derby favorite with a 2¼-length victory in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.
Ridden by Chris McCarron, Came Home covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:50 and paid $4.20, $3.40 and $2.80 as the wagering favorite.
Easy Grades returned $5.40 and $4, while Lusty Latin was another three-quarters of a length back in third and paid $5.60 to show.
Mayakovsky finished fourth, U S S Tinosa was fifth, Jack's Silver sixth, Proud Citizen seventh and Danthebluegrassman was last. Each carried 122 pounds.
Part owners Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan, who also bred Came Home, put the horse up for sale three times with no takers -- thus giving the colt his name.
"What's so special about this horse is that somehow we weren't meant to sell this horse. He was meant to come home. There's some meaning in that," McCaffery said.
Came Home first entered the sale ring at Keeneland in 1999, and was bought back for $650,000. He went unsold at two later auctions. Now the duo, whose other partners are Will Farish and John Goodman, is thankful.
"I'm totally glad," Toffan said, laughing.
So why didn't anyone buy the colt?
"People who had looked at horse thought he was a little bit small," McCaffery said.
"It just shows you that people looking at horses, you wonder how much they really know," Toffan said. "You can't measure how much heart a horse has got."
Although the time was slow, Came Home answered questions about his ability to go the distance, which is an eighth of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby.
"If you place a lot of emphasis on that, you're making a mistake because the track today is not all that glib," McCarron said. "(Former jockey) Bill Hartack used to say the only time time means anything is when you're looking through those bars."
Came Home has six wins in seven career starts, with the victories coming by a combined 23 lengths. His only loss was in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November, when he battled a strong headwind at Belmont Park.

[imaufo]

Here is a site with some interesting histories on the Kentucky Derby.
http://www.hickoksports.com/history/kyderby.shtml

[Homer J.]

If this year's crop of 3-year-olds could talk they no doubt would speak in rhetoric. Each individual word makes sense, but when they string them together they say nothing. If they're trying to tell us something, they're being awfully cryptic about it. We have one more weekend to get some meaningful answers and then we're left to our own devices to try to sort out the complexities of this year's Kentucky Derby.
This past weekend was supposed to provide much-needed answers, and although America's marquee horse passed his final test and earned his ticket to Louisville, we still came away with that same confused look as in past weekends. And why not? You had the slowest Santa Anita Derby since 1963; you had the 1-2 favorite in the Illinois Derby get beat 6 1/4 lengths by a horse he defeated by 9 3/4 lengths two races back; you had last year's 2-year-old champion beaten by a filly in his 3-year-old debut; you had the Santa Anita Derby runner-up run with a faulty bridle, which gets added to the never ending list of weird ways to lose a horse race; you had the Gotham winner stumble badly at the start of the Santa Anita Derby, then get slammed into while he was getting back up; and you have the one-two finishers in the Aventura Stakes not even being considered for the Kentucky Derby.
Welcome to another episode of "2002: A Derby Dilemma," where all that's missing is a narration by Rod Serling, although we really don't need anyone to tell us we're "traveling in another dimension."
Being we started this report with the negative and unusual aspects of the weekend, it's only fair we play devil's advocate with ourselves.
On one hand, Came Home closed his final three-eighths in the Santa Anita Derby in a lethargic :38 4/5. On the other hand, he's won six of seven career starts, and no doubt is an extremely talented, professional, and tenacious colt.
On one hand, jockey Chris McCarron was pushing hard on him a long way out, and seemed to be going nowhere from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole. On the other hand, he's won six of seven career starts, and no doubt is an extremely talented, professional, and tenacious colt.
On one hand, Repent not only was beaten 6 1/4 lengths by War Emblem in the Illinois Derby, he was farther behind him at the finish than he was at the eighth and quarter poles. On the other hand, he was giving the winner 10 pounds, and War Emblem did close his final two fractions in a very solid :24 3/5 and :12 2/5. Repent also made a strong run from ninth to second, but the turns at Sportsman's are so short, there is no time for a closer (and good turn horse) to make up much ground before turning for home.
On one hand, Repent still is not changing leads when he's supposed to and still is not running as professionally in the stretch as he's supposed to. On the other hand, trainer Kenny McPeek feels he trained him too softly for this race, and also opened his blinkers up from a three-quarter-inch cup to a half-inch cup in order to help him change leads -- plans he feels backfired. McPeek will now go back to the three-quarter cups and train him more sharply for the Derby, working him faster and shortening his gallops.
On one hand, Repent was caught gawking off to his left at the break and was late coming out of the gate, costing him all chance to get an early position. On the other hand, McPeek will work on that as well, breaking him out of the gate three times between now and the Derby.
It should be noted that Repent did finally change leads at the sixteenth pole and immediately drew off from Fonz's, increasing his margin to 4 1/2 lengths. He just couldn't make a dent in War Emblem's lead. McPeek's vet told him the colt was cooled out by the time he reached the detention barn, and he cleaned out his feed tub in two hours. Repent surely doesn't move up off this race, as he still has issues to work out. But we feel it would be premature to throw him out. A mile and a quarter at Churchill is a whole other ballgame. Remember, Ferdinand was coming off a third in the Santa Anita Derby, in which he not only was beaten 7 lengths, but he lost 3 lengths in the final quarter mile. Yet he came from far back and blew his field away at Churchill. If you can find it in your heart and wallet to forgive Repent for his recent transgressions, you could be rewarded financially for your loyalty. His one-time favorite-like odds likely are now a distant memory.
On one hand, Johannesburg was caught going 7 furlongs by a filly who also was making her first start of the year, who was giving Johannesburg 11 pounds, and who had been running mainly in 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 mile races last year. In her last start she finished a well-beaten eighth in the 10-furlong Dubai Champion Stakes. On the other hand...well, we're still working on the other hand. Even if there was another hand it is hard to imagine him winning the Kentucky Derby off this race. It would have been hard to imagine it even had he won by daylight. This did, however, look like an excellent 2,000 Guineas prep.
If they do decide to continue with their plans to send Johannesburg to the Derby, the once-unbeaten colt will not arrive with the same aura of invincibility he had prior to the Gladness. While we still believe he is an extraordinarily talented horse, our reservations about him being ready to go a mile and a quarter on the first Saturday in May are no stronger than his own trainer's, whose key phrase in discussing the quest has been "we're just hoping."
While on the subject of Aidan O'Brien horses, while we didn't see Castle Gandolfo's victory in the Fosters-International Trial Stakes (a most impressive, but misleading name), we did receive a video in the mail on Friday showing all of Coolmore's 2001 group I victories - an astounding 23 of them. Fortunately, in two of them, Castle Gandolfo finished second to his own stablemate, enabling us to see him in action. In the 1 1/4-mile Criterium de Saint-Cloud, run over a left-handed, relatively flat course, we were extremely impressed with the colt's action and the length of his stride. We particularly liked the way he was still striding out strongly at the end of the 10 furlongs and showed no signs of backing up over heavy ground that does not suit him. He gets his head and shoulders down pretty low and really reaches out with authority. Now that he's won over the dirt, albeit against mediocre competition, we have to feel he is a horse who should not be treated lightly on Derby Day.

[Homer J.]

Trainer Aidan O'Brien, speaking at a media "Open Day" at Ballydoyle Stables on Apr. 11, gave a strong hint that Johannesburg, shown above winning last summer's Gr. I Prix Morny in Deauville, France, might take his chance in the May 4 Kentucky Derby (GI). "He loves the dirt, and he has that pace," O'Brien said. "It's possible he'll go to Kentucky. You could see him cruising into the last furlong, he'll either stay cruising or he won't." O'Brien also noted that should Johannesburg come stateside for the Derby, Michael Kinane would have the mount. O'Brien's other Kentucky Derby aspirant, Castle Gandolfo, will only run if Johannesburg goes postward; an American-based jockey will ride.

[Homer J.]

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 13, 2002) - Facing just five opponents and some questions if he'd successfully go 1 ¼ miles in the first Saturday in May, Harlan's Holiday left little doubt that he is the early Kentucky Derby (GI) favorite after an easy victory in the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass (GI) at Keeneland Race Courese.
The Ohio-bred son of Harlan collared his Florida nemesis - the John Ward trained Booklet - at the top of the stretch and, after getting a crack of the whip from jockey Edgar Prado, drew off down the lane for the 4 ½-length win. He covered the 1 1/8-miles in a slow 1:51.51.
"I wouldn't trade him for any other horse so far," Prado said. "He's proved that he can run against these horses. He can go a mile and a sixteenth and a mile and an eighth.
I was happy with his performance today. He has two runs. He breaks running out of the gate. You can place him anywhere you want. You have the opportunity to go through a hole or push somebody else to get position, he will do that and settle back again. Then you can ask him in the stretch and he'll give you another run. He's a very easy horse to ride."
The victory by Harlan's Holiday, who is trained Ken McPeek, who earlier in the week lost his other Derby hopeful, Repent, to a chip in his ankle, has now won six of 10 races having finished worse than second. Harlan's Holiday paid $3.40, $2.20 and $2.10 as the 3-5 favorite. Booklet returned $3.00 and $2.40; Ocean Sound, who finished a neck off Booklet in third, paid $2.80 to show.
"These horses have battled all year," said McPeek. "We've seen this same scenario over and over again. I felt we had the advantage today. The extra sixteenth (of a mile) has made the difference between Harlan's Holiday and Booklet. Booklet is a very good opponent, and I'm glad we evened it up here."
After the afternoon's prep races, Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia said Harlan's Holiday would be the lukewarm 5-1 morning line favorite for the Kentucky Derby with the Wood Memorial (GI) 1-2-3 finishers (Buddha, Medaglia d'Oro and Sunday Break) also getting strong consideration.
The Blue Grass unfolded as most people speculated, as the Dallas Stewart-trained Bob's Image and Booklet battled for the early lead while Harlan's Holiday dropped back to fourth. On the far turn, Prado guided Harlan's Holiday to the outside and began his run to the winner's circle.
"Edgar mentioned to me in the paddock that he wanted to put him in position early in the race," McPeek said. "It looked like he tried to get him out of the gate and then go with the other horses. I didn't want to get into a position where we were too far behind. Edgar rode him perfectly."
Only Harlan's Holiday has committed to running in the Kentucky Derby. The connections of Booklet, who produced Derby 127 victor Monarchos, are uncertain about their colt's future.
"The thing that would make us run in the Kentucky Derby is the attrition over the next couple of weeks," Ward said. "You are not going to take yourself out of the game early. But it will be up to Mr. Oxley (owner, John). Harlan's Holiday is an extremely solid horse on an upward curve. It looks like we have the second-best horse right now. I am just glad we beat him twice."
Two-time Derby winning trainer Trainer Nick Zito, who saddled Straight Gin to a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass, was also unsure about the Kentucky Derby for his charge.
"The horse ran well," Zito said. "I wish we were second. There would be no doubt about the Derby if we were second. He could have been second were it not for all the trouble at the start when he got squeezed. The Preakness (GI) is in five weeks, so we might go there. He is a real mile and a quarter horse and when you have one, it is hard to find races for them."
Bob's Image, who was coming off a fifth-place in the Louisiana Derby (GII), pulled his left front suspensory in the race while finishing fifth of six.