Tuesday, the day minor racetracks run cards that would attract no attention on a busy weekend.
“I won the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie on a Tuesday!” trainer Brian Lynch exclaimed.
He did. Golden Moka captured the 2010 renewal of the second leg in Canada’s Triple Crown. Who knows the last time an American racetrack ran a Tuesday Grade 1. It happens this week at Keeneland, where the $1.25 million Blue Grass, a major prep for the first leg of the American Triple Crown, got pushed back three days because of unusually heavy rain.
Lynch has a chance to win this one, too, with Owen Almighty, one of seven entrants in the Blue Grass, the last major qualifying race on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby.
The Derby at one point divided Lynch and the colt’s owner, the Boersma Family’s Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing. Even after Owen Almighty scored a front-running 3 1/2-length victory March 1 in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby, earning 50 qualifying points that will get him into the Kentucky Derby, Lynch said he preferred aiming for the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard. Owen Almighty, on pedigree and appearance, struck him more as middle-distance than mile-and-a-quarter.
Folks from Flying Dutchmen, the Thoroughbred operation of billionaire coffee company magnate Travis Boersma, had different ideas, Derby dreams. Within a couple days, Lynch had realigned his plans. Before Churchill, Owen Almighty must try to stay 1 1/8 miles on a Tuesday at Keeneland.
“I loved the way he finished last time, and he’s trained on very solidly since. It’s time we test our limits,” Lynch said.
Jose Ortiz rode Owen Almighty to his debut win and will be aboard for the first time since. He picks up the mount from brother Irad Ortiz Jr., who switches to 5-2 morning-line favorite River Thames. River Thames’s rider, John Velazquez, was to ride in Dubai on April 5, the original Blue Grass date. Florent Geroux also went to Dubai, leaving the mount on longshot Admiral Dennis to Luis Saez. Brian Hernandez Jr., who has ridden many of the top horses for trainer Ian Wilkes and owner Whitham Thoroughbreds, picks up the mount on Burnham Square. Luan Machado inherits the Blue Grass mount on East Avenue from the injured Tyler Gaffalione. Flavien Prat takes his regular seat on Chancer McPatrick; Sheldon Russell rides back Render Judgment, another longshot, after piloting him to a second-place Virginia Derby finish.
While Owen Almighty has ample early speed, Lynch expects River Thames to be ridden forwardly from the rail and East Avenue to head to the front. Lynch said he’d be fine with a stalking trip for Owen Almighty. But the trainers of River Thames and East Avenue aren’t committed to leading.
River Thames won a pair of one-turn races starting his career this year and after pressing the pace and taking a stretch-call lead, he was on the way to victory making his stakes and two-turn debut March 1 in the Fountain of Youth. Instead, late-running Sovereignty came from nowhere and nailed him on the wire. Sovereignty’s sudden surge appeared to surprise Velazquez, and River Thames also might have lost focus after hitting the front. Velazquez told Pletcher the colt was “gawking at the video screen.”
“I think the horse got distracted a little bit. Johnny thought he might have had the race won,” Pletcher said.
Interpreting the finish is key: River Thames, by the sprinter Maclean’s Music and out of a sprinting mare, Proportionality, is no sure thing to excel at distances longer than the Fountain of Youth’s 1 1/16 miles, though Pletcher points out that with a long run-up, the Fountain of Youth played closer to 1 1/8 miles. He also notes River Thames made his second start three weeks after his first, his third start four weeks after his second, and now has gotten more than five weeks to refresh.
“It looks like some other speed in there. I think we can secure a good position into the first turn,” Pletcher said.
East Avenue set a fast pace and easily won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland last fall. Nothing has gone right since. A bad stumble at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile led to a poor showing, but East Avenue had no excuse when he pressed the pace and fell apart on the far turn of the Feb. 15 Risen Star. Brendan Walsh, who trains the Godolphin homebred, could find nothing physically wrong with a clearly talented colt. East Avenue has been training in blinkers and races in them for the first time Tuesday, but Walsh isn’t committed to putting East Avenue on the lead.
“There’s a lot of speed in there. We’re drawn outside and we can stalk them if we need to,” Walsh said.
Trainer Chad Brown, meanwhile, doesn’t include himself among those wondering if Chancer McPatrick can race as effectively around two turns as one. Twice a Grade 1 winner in one-turn races, Chancer McPatrick in his two route tries finished sixth in the BC Juvenile and chased home Owen Almighty in the Tampa Bay Derby, his first start in blinkers.
“I have a lot of confidence he’s a two-turn horse. I guess he’s got to prove that to other people that don’t work with him every day,” Brown said.
Chancer McPatrick had mid-November ankle surgery to remove a bone chip. Brown strongly believes he’ll move forward.
“Do the math: He had a full 60 days off and was back racing by the first of March. I said he was 80 percent last time; it probably was less,” Brown said.
While Render Judgment and Admiral Dennis require massive improvement to win, Burnham Square needs only marginally better than his fourth in the Fountain of Youth. A blue-collar horse who debuted – and ran well sprinting – in a $150,000 maiden claimer in October at Keeneland, Burnham Square improved as soon as Wilkes stretched him to two turns and improved again with the addition of blinkers, winning the Holy Bull in his second start with the equipment.
“The farther he goes, the better he gets, and since the blinkers have gone on, he’s a lot better,” Wilkes said.
Burnham Square didn’t race as handily in the Fountain of Youth as he had his two previous starts, and, stuck between rivals at the top of the stretch, he sucked back out of contention. Instead of fading, Burnham Square came running again, eventually galloping out in front.
“That race could have shook him, but instead he’s come back and trained very well. He worked [five furlongs] in 59 and 3 the other day, and it looked like he went 1:01,” Wilkes said.
The Blue Grass winner earns 100 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby. Second through fifth get 50, 25, 15, and 10.
There’s a lot on the line on a Tuesday at Keeneland.
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