Sierra Leone, by Gun Runner, won his debut at Aqueduct in November 2023. He came back with a bang-up second by a nose in the Remsen Stakes before beginning his 3-year-old season capturing the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. Sierra Leone cost $2.3 million as a yearling, campaigned for Coolmore connections and prominent owner Peter Brant, and was trained by Chad Brown.
Paladin, by Gun Runner, debuted two weeks earlier in the year than Sierra Leone, won first out, and returned to go one place better in the Remsen than Sierra Leone, winning by two lengths. Paladin cost $1.9 million as a yearling, campaigns for Coolmore connections and Brant, is trained by Brown, and launches his 3-year-old campaign Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Risen Star.
Obvious question: Is Paladin the next Sierra Leone?
“I don’t know about that,” Brown said.
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Let’s drill down on that comment. After the Risen Star, Sierra Leone won the Blue Grass at Keeneland and lost the Kentucky Derby by a nose. He capped his campaign landing the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which made him champion 3-year-old. His 4-year-old season wound up with a second-place Classic finish, and Sierra Leone was an Eclipse Award finalist.
That’s what Brown meant. There is no way to know if Paladin might scale the heights Sierra Leone reached. Compare the two horses at the same point in their career, and Paladin has plenty going for him. Sierra Leone had quirks. He lugged in through the homestretch in almost all of his races and lacked positional pace.
“This horse, he’s got a different running style,” Brown said of Paladin. “He can make his own trip better. He’s more mature at this age, and he’s mature mentally. He doesn’t pull. He does what you want him to do. Sometimes the fast horses, they want to go faster. This horse naturally switches off.”
Sounds like the complete package and justification for Paladin going solidly favored – perhaps at odds-on – in the Grade 2, $500,000 Risen Star.
Tyler Gaffalione, Sierra Leone’s first jockey, picks up the mount on Paladin with Flavien Prat, aboard in Paladin’s first two races, riding Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Paladin breaks from post 4, a good draw, and faces seven foes in the 1 1/8-mile Risen Star, the first 105-point qualifier (points distributed 50, 25, 15, 10, and 5 to the first five home) on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Brown, a no-brainer Hall of Famer, has yet to win the Derby, coming agonizingly close with Sierra Leone. If Paladin progresses like he should and avoids injury, he’ll take Brown back to the Derby.
“He has a lot of attributes that would lend him to be an uncomplicated Derby horse,” Brown said. “He trains like he’ll run all day.”
Video of recent workouts at Brown’s winter base, Payson Park, shows an exceedingly robust colt who, galloping out at the end of his drills, just keeps going. In the Risen Star, Paladin figures to sit just behind the likely speed, Carson Street and Chip Honcho, who were third and fourth last month at Fair Grounds in the Lecomte. And Todd Pletcher, who already trains two serious Derby hopes in Nearly and Renegade, hopes the addition of blinkers will help Courting take up a position not that far behind Paladin.
Think Paladin sold for a ridiculously high price? Courting, a son of Curlin and the excellent racemare Cavorting, went for $5 million at auction. He’s a horse with a classic profile, loaded with stamina, a great beast of a colt.
“We’re confident the farther he goes, the better he gets,” Pletcher said. “He’s got a lot of length, stands over a lot of ground.”
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Immaturity and lack of focus – as well a relatively difficult trip in the Remsen, where he checked in a decent fourth – tamped down Courting’s progress at age 2. Pletcher tried working Courting in blinkers on Jan. 16, witnessed a change for the better, and since has seen Courting continue to improve in his training.
“I thought he was more focused, more into the bridle going to the pole and into his works throughout. He’s done well through the course of the winter. He’s put on the right kind of weight, kind of had everything go the way we hoped it would,” Pletcher said.
Golden Tempo has started his career with two wins and became the leading Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old colt winning the Jan. 17 Lecomte, his first try with winners and first around two turns. Another Curlin colt for whom 1 1/8 miles should pose no issue, Golden Tempo could be viewed as a candidate for blinkers, trainer Cherie DeVaux said. Golden Tempo has been slow to get into both of his races, and while making the strong, sustained move that won him the Lecomte, the colt idled for several strides after jockey Jose Ortiz guided him to the rail in midstretch.
“If he hadn’t won [the Lecomte], he’s a horse you’d think about blinkers,” DeVaux said.
Golden Tempo has never showed speed in morning workouts but has become more aggressive and engaged in training. At some point, DeVaux hopes to see improved positional pace.
“I don’t want to change his style so much. I just don’t like him giving himself too much to do,” she said.
Carson Street set a demanding pace in the Lecomte and held solidly for third behind two closers. Drawn inside Saturday, he’s the likely Risen Star pacesetter under Ben Curtis.
“We wouldn’t be taking anything away from him,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “He’s a tough horse. He runs his race every time.”
Chip Honcho pressed a hot pace and hung in to win the Dec. 27 Gun Runner in his two-turn and stakes debut. He broke from post 10 in the Lecomte, lost precious ground on both turns while chasing the leader, and did well to check in three-quarters of a length behind Carson Street.
“For him to hang in there the way he has, I think it proves more than getting a soft pace and holding on to win,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
Chip Honcho gets a jockey change to Luis Saez, who should suit him, and races with blinkers removed after failing to settle his last two starts. Asmussen believes Chip Honcho will relax with the right trip and can stay the Risen Star’s 1 1/8 miles.
Universe finished a distant third in the Grade 1 Champagne last fall and a closer second Nov. 29 in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, but he clunked home seventh with no apparent excuse in the Smarty Jones last month at Oaklawn. Quality Mischief outran his odds in the Gun Runner and Lecomte without threatening the winner. Longshot Colt Forty Seven has improved in each of his last three starts.
The Risen Star, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Central, goes as the last of a dozen races on a card that begins at noon. It follows a major Kentucky Oaks qualifier, the Rachel Alexandra, and caps an all-stakes pick five.
The local forecast a few days ago called for afternoon rain, but if precipitation does come to New Orleans, it might not arrive until well after the races. And by then, we will know if Paladin really is following in Sierra Leone’s hoofprints.
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