Derby notes: Adriano, Colonel John breeze

From Churchill Downs

Lane’s End Stakes winner Adriano had his final workout for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, negotiating five furlongs Sunday at Churchill Downs in 1:00.80 in company with stablemate Cherokee Artist.

Regular exercise rider Xavier Azipuru was aboard Adriano, who will be ridden by Edgar Prado in the Run for the Roses.

“Xavier worked him all winter on dirt and turf,” said trainer Graham Motion, whose Derby hopeful produced splits of :12.20, :24.40 and :36.60 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.40. “He said he worked as good or better than he’s worked all year. I caught him in :24 or maybe a little bit better for the last quarter, and I was pleased with that. I wanted to see him finish up like that.”

“I was encouraged to see Dallas’ horse come back and win the Derby Trial, which legitimizes the race somewhat,” said Motion, referring to the Dallas Stewart-trained Macho Again, who struggled on the Polytrack surface at Turfway in the Lane’s End. “But (Adriano) certainly couldn’t have won more comfortably.”

Because Adriano had previously run poorly in his only start on dirt at Gulfstream Park in the Fountain of Youth (GII) and had all of his success on turf, his trainer hesitated to commit to a Derby start directly after the Lane’s End.

“I was trying to make a decision with my head not with my heart. It’s always easy to get caught up in it as soon as you win one of those races, but I wanted to be sure we were doing the right thing,” Motion said. “I think after we analyzed it for three or four weeks and talked it over, it became more and more logical.”

Motion said Adriano’s ninth-place finish in the Fountain of Youth could well have been a result of his colt’s prerace misbehavior in the paddock.

“He’s very hot-blooded. That’s why we brought him here early. We schooled him in the paddock (Saturday) and we brought him to the paddock this morning before he breezed,” Motion said. “I can’t believe the difference in him. I’m not saying he’s going to be perfect on Derby Day with 150,000 people, but I’m really impressed with how he’s handled it the more he’s done it.”

Colonel John put up a sharp five-furlong drill.

The tall colt had exercise rider Karine Lhuillier attached for his move shortly after the renovation break and they proved quite a team on a clear and crisp morning. Breaking off at the five-eighths pole, the son of Tiznow went right about his business and – without any serious urging from his rider – registered a time of :57.80, which was clearly the best of a total of 62 works at the distance.

By anyone’s accounting it was impressive, especially so in light of the fact the California-based youngster had raced and trained almost exclusively on synthetic surfaces in the Golden State since beginning his career at Del Mar last summer.

“I’m happy with the way he did it,” said his conditioner, Eoin Harty. “He did it within himself and that’s what I liked. That track was fast today; maybe faster than it should be. But everyone else was working fast, so that’s part of my thinking. And she (Lhuillier) wasn’t pushing on him.”

Harty was asked if the work dispelled any thoughts about his colt’s possible inability to handle a dirt surface.

“Dirt is not an issue,” the trainer said. “I thought he handled it well today. He trained on dirt as a two-year-old and he handled it well then. I’ve been confident in him in that regard all along.”

Clockers registered split times on the homebred’s drill, catching him along the way in :12, :23.20, :34.60 and :46. He was tabbed at 1:11.20 on the six-furlong gallop out.
The next-best five-furlong work of the morning was turned in by the crackerjack filly Eight Belles, who covered the distance in: 58.20. The tall, gray miss could well be on the track again with Colonel John, as she’s being pointed for a start against all the boys in the Kentucky Derby.

Harty had originally scheduled Colonel John’s work for Monday morning, but the forecast of heavy rains in the area for Sunday night caused him to move it up a day.

“On first take, he appears to have come out of this well,” the trainer said. “He’s blowing some, but that’s to be expected. We’ve got some time to work with him the rest of the week, if need be. But all in all, I’m pleased.”

Trainer Bill Mott reshuffled the schedule with his Derby duo Sunday, moving up workouts he had tentatively slated for Monday or Tuesday. Both WinStar Farm’s Court Vision and Zayat Stables’ Z Humor turned in their final Derby 134 breezes under the Twin Spires at five furlongs.

First up was Court Vision, who drilled the five panels in 1:00.80 while working in company. The son of Gulch rattled off splits of :13, :25.60, :37.20 and :48.80, while galloping out an extra furlong in 1:14.

After the renovation break, Z Humor, with Neil Poznansky up, also worked in company for five furlongs, getting the distance in 1:01.20. The Distorted Humor colt posted splits of :25.40, :37.20 and :49.20, galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.80.

“I had originally wanted to work Monday or Tuesday, but with the forecast, I decided to move them up,” the Hall of Fame trainer said, joking, “and, besides, I didn’t know which day of the week was better in the first place. Now we have six days to recover.

“I asked for a work in the neighborhood of one minute. We just wanted a decent, useful work. On my watch, I had Court Vision in 1:00.20 and Z Humor in 1:00.60, so we were just about right on.”
“Court Vision went well,” Mott said after training hours. “He worked good and cooled out very quickly. He only took one deep breath and everything’s looking pretty good.”

“Z Humor is doing equally as well,” Mott said. “He had a good work this morning, finished up well and looked smooth doing it. Anytime you have a horse on the improve, anything can happen.”

Both colts are expected to walk the shedrow Monday following their breezes, Mott said, adding that each will school in the paddock during raceday sometime in the coming week.

Smooth Air went back to the track Sunday, jogging a little bit more than a mile alongside a pony before the renovation break with Susie Milne up.

The Smooth Jazz colt has been fighting a low grade fever and had not been to the track since Thursday.

“I didn’t sleep well last night, but I will tonight,” trainer Bennie Stutts Jr. said. “I came in this morning and saw that empty feed tub and knew he was all right.”

With owner Brian Burns of Mount Joy looking on, Smooth Air took three and a half turns around the shedrow led by groom Adeladia Geigel before heading to the track. As the colt neared the gap, a black cat ran right in front of the horse.

“He always goes twice around,” Stutts said. “This is probably the first time in more than six months that he hasn’t. He loves to train, but this morning I didn’t want him to get too hot. He will go around twice tomorrow and you will see a different horse.”

On the way back to the barn, another black cat ran behind Smooth Air.
“If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Burns said. “Maybe two black cats mean good luck. I think it was a setup for us that they had the cats in a cage and just let them out when we went by.”

It was “final work” morning for trainer Larry Jones’ high-line fillies, and it turned out to be quite lively.

Both drilled sharply under rider Gabriel Saez with final times that turned heads – Eight Belles covering five furlongs in :58.20 and Proud Spell going the same distance in :58.40.

Jones, riding his huge stable pony Pal alongside the workers, first led Proud Spell out of the six-furlong gap and on to the main track to be the first on track following the mid-morning renovation at Churchill Downs Sunday morning. After a quick backtrack, Jones gave his charge a running start at the five-furlong pole, then cut her loose under the Panamanian Saez for splits that registered :11.40, :22.60, :34.40 and :46.40. The pair finished up with a good gallop-out in 1:12.80.

Jones quickly escorted the bay filly back to Barn 43 and – after Saez dismounted one lassie and climbed aboard the other – he brought the tall, gray Eight Belles to the racetrack for a similar scenario.

The trainer and the pony again got the work filly a head start on the five-eighths pole and the daughter of Unbridled’s Song went about her business with relish. Clipping off fractions of :11.40, :22.60, :34.20 and :45.80, she went by the wire with the second-fastest five-furlong time of the morning, galloping out an additional panel in 1:12 and yet one more after that in 1:25.40.

Only the Kentucky Derby colt Colonel John went quicker than Eight Belles among the 62 runners who rang up five furlongs Sunday. The colt’s time was a rapid :57.80, but the filly – who is likely to see him again in the Derby starting gate next Saturday – wasn’t far behind.

“Proud Spell’s work was exactly what I wanted,” noted Jones after the exercises. “I told Gabriel I wanted a good work in her, something like she did prior to the Breeders’ Cup (in which she finished second). She’s had a couple of slow works over on the ‘Poly’ at Keeneland and she needed this. It was good for her.

“Eight Belles probably went a little quicker than she needed, but it’s fine. She was all run out there today and she’s quite capable of turning in those kind of works.

Saez, a 20-year-old who has been riding in this country since 2006 after making his mark as his native country’s top apprentice the previous year, liked both moves.

“Proud Spell worked well,” he said. “When I worked her over at Keeneland, I had to push on her to get her to go. But here she just went right on with it.

“The other filly (Eight Belles) felt good. She worked well, very well.”

Saez is in line to ride both fillies next out. He’s been the only rider to handle Proud Spell and former Kentucky governor Brereton Jones’ homebred daughter of Proud Citizen is now bound for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks. On Saturday, the rider will go back aboard Eight Belles when she takes on 19 males in the Derby. He has ridden the Fox Hill Farms’ filly four times before, winning on two of those occasions.