CHURCHILL DOWNS
Tuesday, April 22
Weather: Clear
Temp: 51
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There were two potential Kentucky Derby starters scheduled to work Tuesday morning during the special Derby/Oaks training session that begins daily at 7:15 a.m. at Churchill Downs. But in the end it was the Kentucky Oaks-bound filly La Cara who stole the show on a clear but chilly morning under the Twin Spires.
La Cara will enter the Oaks as a leading contender off her gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland earlier this month. She enhanced her status while giving every indication she’s moved forward out of the race for trainer Mark Casse with an eye-catching half-mile breeze on Tuesday.
With exercise rider Kevin Donnis aboard, La Cara posted a 22.60-second opening quarter-mile split, then continued full of run while cruising along on her own accord down the stretch, completing four furlongs in 46.06 with her ears up to and through the wire.
She continued effortlessly and with plenty of energy still in the tank into and around the bend while galloping out five furlongs in 58.90 before easing up six panels in 1:12.61. Her final time was nearly two seconds better than the next quickest half-mile clocking during the course of the morning and her gallop-out time would have been good enough to earn the bullet at five furlongs on the tab.
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The key to success for La Cara, a three-time stakes winner, may be her ability to rate in an Oaks lineup that includes several other early pace types.
Rebel winner Coal Battle also worked four furlongs. He eased away from the pole in 13.05, then picked up his pace steadily thereafter, getting an opening quarter in 24.38 before completing the distance in 47.97 while put to steady urging from the sixteenth pole to the wire.
Coal Battle eased up after five-eighths in 1:01.16. The move was an improvement over his previous work here one week earlier when he was under a steady drive for nearly the final three-sixteenths of a mile to complete five furlongs in a rather average-looking 1:01.31.
Admire Daytona, one of two Japanese entrants in this year’s Derby, turned in his first official local breeze, a leisurely four furlongs from the three-eighths pole in 39.42 and 53.62 after warming up for about 10 minutes in the mile chute. The U.A.E. Derby winner eased into the breeze by two-minute licking away from the half-mile pole. The work was nothing more than a leg-stretching maintenance run following his previous start 17 days earlier.
Built trained later than normal this morning - during the special session rather than at his usual 5:45 a.m. - and looked the best he has over the past several mornings while galloping in blinkers. He is expected to have his final Derby breeze sometime over the next several days, per trainer Wayne Catalano.
East Avenue changed up his schedule as well on Tuesday, turning in a routine gallop minutes after the track opened for business at 5:15 a.m.
American Promise was the only other Derby contender to train under the lights, picking up his pace to nearly a two-minute lick coming by the wire the second time around.
La Cara’s stablemate Sandman is the only Derby hopeful penciled in to breeze on Wednesday.
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