NEWS
Friesan Fire bound for Kentucky
Posted: Monday, March 16, 2009 7:36 PM
FRIESAN FIRE
Lou Hodges Jr. photo
by Jeff Lowe
Trainer Larry Jones and owner Rick Porter will regroup with Old Fashioned and head to Kentucky with Friesan Fire to contemplate the best way to get him ready for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).
Friesan Fire is scheduled to be shipped to Keeneland Race Course this week after becoming the first horse in 15 years to sweep the Fair Grounds stakes series for three-year-olds, capping the three-race ascension with a 7 1/4-length triumph in the Louisiana Derby (G2) on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
About 80 minutes later, Old Fashioned was victimized by a hot pace and a live bomber in the Rebel Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park, finishing second to 56.80-to-1 longshot Win Willy in a stunner that continued a shakeup of top contenders for the Triple Crown.
In the past month, trouble has found all three of last season’s Eclipse Award finalists for champion two-year-old male as champion Midshipman was injured and Vineyard Haven has not performed to expectations in Dubai, and Old Fashioned faltered in pursuit of his fifth straight victory.
AnUnbridled’s Song colt, OldFashioned will get a chance for redemption in the Arkansas Derby (G2) on April 11 at Oaklawn.
Jones and co-owners Porter and Vinery Stables will do some analysis during the next few days before they decide whether Friesan Fire will race again before the Kentucky Derby.
Jones and Porter have been through this before and came to opposite conclusions with Hard Spun and Eight Belles, who finished second in the 2007 and ’08 Kentucky Derbys, respectively.
Hard Spun won the Lane’s End Stakes (G2) in March 2007 and had a six-week break before his second-place finish to Street Sense in the Derby.
Eight Belles won the Honeybee Stakes (G3), the companion race to the Rebel, last March and scored again in the Fantasy Stakes (G2) three weeks later before her gallant Derby effort that ended in tragedy.
If Friesan Fire foregoes another prep race, he would head into the Derby off a seven-week layoff. He has raced seven times in his career, one more than Hard Spun before his Derby start. Eight Belles raced nine times prior to last year’s Derby.
Jones said speed figures would be part of the equation with Friesan Fire.
“We’ll analyze his numbers to think if he can run a Derby-winning number [off the Louisiana Derby] or if we need to get another race into him,” Jones said.
Porter said Jones’s input would weigh heavily in the decision.
“Friesan Fire sure ran an awesome race,” Porter said in a message on his stable’s website, www.rockportharbor.com. “He just seems to be getting better as the Derby approaches. Old Fashioned ran a big race, even though he got beat. He got caught up in some hot fractions and maybe was moved a little early. Overall, he ran big. All great horses get beat.”
Trainer Mac Robertson reached a new level in his young career with Win Willy. Robertson compiled ten stakes wins while leading the trainer standings at Canterbury Park last summer. The Rebel was his first graded stakes victory.
Win Willy began his career with a win at Canterbury last August. He then finished sixth in an optional claiming race on the turf at Remington Park on October 30 and won a six-furlong optional claiming race on the dirt at Oaklawn Park on February 22 in his only other races before the Rebel.
On Saturday, the Monarchos colt broke from the outside post in a field of nine and circled the field to collar Old Fashioned.
“We really liked the horse all along, since his [debut] last summer,” Robertson said on Monday. “He was a real stretchy two-year-old, had a lot of leg to him, and was a real pretty top-lined horse. He was nowhere close to being developed but was able to win first time out going 5½ furlongs in August, so he showed us a lot.
“This was a big, big win, and I’m awful proud of the horse. I hope he runs well on April 11 in the Arkansas Derby.”
Owners Jerome and Martha Myers have received private offers to buy Win Willy since the Rebel, but Robertson said the gray or roan colt appears to be staying put.
Musket Man also thrust himself and his under-the-radar connections into the Derby picture on Saturday by winning the Tampa Bay Derby (G3). The Yonaguska colt gave Daniel Centeno, the leading rider at Tampa Bay Downs this meet, his first graded stakes win, while trainer Derek Ryan registered the biggest victory in his 14-year career.
Musket Man has won four of his five career starts, beginning with a debut win at Belmont Park in October. His only blemish was a third-place finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) on February 14.
“We figured we’d have the race at Belmont, then a race at Philadelphia Park before coming to Tampa and getting him ready for the Tampa Bay Derby,” Ryan said on Monday. “Things in racing seldom work out like that. In this case, they did.”
Ryan and owners Eric Fein and Vic Carlson will choose between the Illinois Derby (G2) and Wood Memorial Stakes (G1), both on April 4, for Musket Man’s final Derby prep.
Trainer and owner Tom McCarthy will send Sam F. Davis winner General Quarters to Keeneland for the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) on April 11 following his fifth-place finish at Tampa.
Pioneerof the Nile passed another hurdle in the San Felipe Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Santa Anita Park on the way to a showdown with The Pamplemousse in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) on April 4.
Ahmed Zayat’s homebred Empire Maker colt prevailed as the 3-to-10 favorite and picked up his third consecutive graded stakes victory since joining trainer Bob Baffert’s barn in Southern California.
This Saturday, the $500,000 Lane’s End Stakes (G2) at Turfway Park is the only graded race on the Derby prep schedule.
West Side Bernie will return to the site of his victory in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Stakes (G3) last September. In his only start this year, West Side Bernie finished third to Saratoga Sinner in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.
Jockey Garrett Gomez will fly in from California to ride Bittel Road for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
