The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
An undefeated colt wires the field in the Derby. But while leading late in the race, he shifts paths and causes a horse trained by Steve Asmussen to check hard and lose momentum. After a lengthy deliberation, the stewards disqualify the winner, placing him behind the Asmussen trainee he fouled while elevating the wide-and-driving second-place finisher to victory.
That paragraph pretty much describes this year's GI Kentucky Derby, right?
Yet it also aptly summarizes Friday night's Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.
In a racing season already teeming with bizarre happenstances, you can now add “Derby DQ Déjà Vu” to the list.
In the Kentucky Derby, the nationally televised stewards' takedown set into motion chaos, confusion and litigation.
By contrast, the Iowa Derby DQ was followed by the figurative chirping of crickets.
There was one important difference, though: As part of a new Prairie Meadows policy that started this season, one of the three stewards who officiated the race actually got on a microphone and explained to the public the reasoning behind the DQ shortly after it happened.
You may recall that in the aftermath of the historic DQ in America's most important horse race, one of the chief criticisms was the inadequacy of the Churchill stewards' explanation. To date, the only public accounting of their decision remains a terse, 60-second recitation of prepared remarks made by the chief state steward at a press conference several hours after the DQ rocked the racing world.
So while no one is pretending that the DQ'd Winning Number (Speightstown), the elevated Top Line Growth (Tapizar), and the fouled Shang (Shanghai Bobby) are Iowa's equivalent of Maximum Security (New Year's Day), Country House (Lookin At Lucky), and Long Range Toddy (Take Charge Indy), it would be fitting if Churchill Downs decided to take a cue from Prairie Meadows by insisting that their stewards disclose more about decisions that alter (or preserve) an order of finish.
Breaking the Derby curse…
It's now two months after that controversial Kentucky Derby. Do we have a reliable line yet on how strong a group this year's top-tier sophomores are based on what the Derby horses have done in subsequent starts?
The first 10 next-race starts for horses that ran in the initial leg of the 2019 Triple Crown produced nine losses and just one win.
That lone victory was War of Will (War Front)'s GI Preakness S. score. The rash of defeats by Derby alumni included losses in seemingly cushy spots by Maximum Security at 1-20 odds in the Pegasus S. at Monmouth Park and Roadster (Quality Road) at even money in the GIII Affirmed S. at Santa Anita Park.
Those early results haven't exactly established a bedrock of confidence in the crop. But the Independence Day holiday weekend of stakes racing at Belmont Park offered a couple of clues that might indicate the tide is turning.
On July 4, Win Win Win (Hat Trick {Jpn}) unleashed a smart last-to-first run to capture the Manila S. at 4-1 odds. The ninth-place Derby finisher had run seventh in the Preakness and was shortening up to a one-turn mile for his grass debut.
“This was an experiment. I really didn't know how it was going to end,” said trainer Michael Trombetta, who was non-committal about keeping Win Win Win on the grass for future races. “We didn't put any pressure on him, but he handled it well and we were happy with him. We wanted to see what it was all about and get him started, but we'll take him one race at a time.”
Saturday's GIII Dwyer S. was only a supporting feature on a card stacked with five graded stakes, but Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB})'s going-away win stamped him as a sophomore who could be emerging as a divisional force in the second half of the season.
Code of Honor had crossed the wire third in the Derby and got boosted to second via DQ. But his effort on the first Saturday in May left the impression that he failed to capitalize on the absolute gift of circumstances created when Maximum Security vacated his inside spot turning for home, opening an unimpeded rail path that Code of Honor didn't fully seize. Even jockey John Velazquez said in his post-Derby comments that such a clear inside passage “never happens.” Code of Honor–a relatively late May 23 foal–was held out of the remaining two legs of the Triple Crown to recoup and regroup.
What a difference in maturity those two months made. Velazquez rated the 1.15-1 favorite to last in the Dwyer, angled out widest on the turn, then dove between rivals with an assertive move at the head of the homestretch. He shifted Code of Honor outside to get off the heels of a tiring inside rival, and even though Velazquez dropped his whip while Code of Honor was winding up for his closing kick, it wasn't really needed because the light-framed colt leveled off with determination and composure under his own power in the final furlong. The winning margin was 3 1/4 lengths, but it could have been more.
“Today, he put it all together the way we expected out of him,” Velazquez said after the Dwyer winner's circle ceremony. “Hopefully, he can continue doing that going forward.” A GII Jim Dandy S. start on July 27 is under consideration, with the Aug. 24 GI Travers S. the main summer target.
Three other Kentucky Derby horses also ran on Saturday, but none hit the board. So to date, the scorecard for 2019 Derby alumni now shows three wins from 15 combined post-Derby starts by 12 different horses.
Fifteen wins and counting…
On Saturday night at Charles Town Races, trainer Kevin Patterson broke what is believed to be the record for consecutive wins by a trainer. The victory by Flashy Dragon Girl (Flashy Bull) was the 15th straight win for Patterson, who has not lost a race since May 26 while competing exclusively at Charles Town and Mountaineer Park.
The previously recognized record of 14 consecutive wins was established by the late Frank Passero at Gulfstream Park in 1996. Before that, four other trainers were known to have racked up nine straight wins.
Patterson, whose 2019 win percentage is a gaudy 42%, competes primarily in West Virginia with the backing of owner Robert Cole Jr., whose horses have accounted for 10 of the wins during the current streak. The two are known for partnering on aggressive claiming and entry tactics, with an emphasis on speed-oriented horses.
Patterson had a couple of anxious moments while racking up those 15 wins. On Friday night, winner No. 14, C.D. Jammin (Bop) had to survive a foul claim en route to a wire-to-wire win at 1-5 odds.
And back on June 26, Patterson earned a $200 fine from the Mountaineer stewards for failing to deliver Cuttin Edge Tech (Fiber Sonde) to the paddock, necessitating a late scratch. That race was won by the other half of a Patterson-trained, Cole-owned entry, the 1-5 Phonemyposseagain (Posse), while Cuttin Edge Tech was held out for a start two nights later at Charles Town, which she wired as the 1-10 favorite.
According to the Association of Racing Commissioners International rulings database, Patterson began his year with a 15-day suspension stemming from a medication penalty he incurred back in 2017 when the Cole-owned Blu Moon Ace (Malibu Moon) tested positive for a cobalt overage after running second in the GIII DeFrancis Dash at Laurel Park. A lengthy appeals process failed to overturn the original ruling, so Patterson's $500 fine and suspension didn't go into effect until late 2018.
Patterson does not currently have any future entries listed on Equibase.
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