Trainer Riley Mott knew it would be a big ask for Albus (Yaupon) to go from a one-mile and 40-yard maiden victory to the nine-furlong GII Wood Memorial, but the colt responded with aplomb to win from well off-the-pace on Saturday at Aqueduct and punch his ticket to Louisville for the GI Kentucky Derby.
“He came back covered in mud, and Jaime [Torres] said he wasn't fazed at all by the kickback–going around horses, splitting horses in a big field,” Mott said. “It showed a lot of professionalism. I don't think the number came back that strong, but he did it in a very workmanlike fashion, and that gives you confidence potentially going into a 20-horse field.”
Mott added Albus emerged from the effort in good order and is slated to leave Belmont Park for Louisville on Monday.
“So far, so good–jogged up well this morning and looks fine,” Mott said. “He ships to Churchill Downs [Monday Apr. 6].”
Mott, who went out on his own just four years ago, said it is beginning to sink in how special the First Saturday in May will be this year.
“It's paramount. It's what we strive for, to compete in those types of races–not just the Kentucky Derby, but we want to be in the mix for Breeders' Cups and all the big races around the country,” Mott said. “To have two horses for the Kentucky Derby is extremely special, and hopefully we can keep the two horses happy and healthy and have a special month leading up to the Derby.”
Also headed to the Derby off a solid Wood Memorial performance, Chester Broman, Sr.'s dual graded stakes-placed Right to Party (Constitution) finished a deep-closing second behind Albus, earning 50 Kentucky Derby points and bringing his total to 65 after a third-place finish in the GIII Gotham. The colt was subsequently nominated to the Triple Crown by trainer Ken McPeek and now sits in 12th position on the Derby leaderboard.
“This horse just needed the added distance,” said McPeek, who upset the 2024 Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan. “The horse had a really good winter and he's obviously on the improve. This horse understands the task at hand, and he keeps coming and coming. The team up there has done a really good job with him, and it was great to watch.”
Jimmy Jerkens, McPeek's New York assistant, said Right to Party was in good order Sunday morning at Belmont Park.
“He came back good, and he showed a lot of guts,” Jerkens said. “He always gets in a lot of traffic because of his running style, but he deals with it and when you get him out in the clear, he comes running.”
St. Elias Stable, William H. Lawrence and Glassman Racing's Iron Honor (Nyquist) was the favorite in the Wood Memorial, but finished seventh. The bay exited the outermost post 12 under Manny Franco, brushed with Red Zone Runner into the first turn and did not settle in thereafter.
“That was a rough race,” said trainer Chad Brown on Sunday. “We knew when he drew wide, there was a risk of having trouble into that first turn. [Red Zone Runner] absolutely knocked him off stride into the first turn. After that, according to Manny, when he got hit, he lost his hind end and he tried to push that horse back in, when that happened, he just grabbed the bit and was pulling down the backside. He ended up in a fine stalking position, albeit very wide, but he was doing it under a hard hold. By the three-eighths marker, he [Franco] could feel he was losing him a bit. He just never relaxed after he got hit in the first turn.”
He continued, “He certainly looks like he had a rough trip this morning. He's not lame, but he has some bumps and bruises, that's for sure. We have some things to work on the next three days, see how we can heal them up. Let's see how he comes out of this and go from there. I have to reevaluate what I'm doing with this horse. Early conversations with the ownership group, it looks like he could be more of a GI Preakness horse to get over that sort of rough of a race, and giving me six weeks into a race like that might be more of a realistic situation. Maybe after that rough of an experience, stepping up in a harder race with 20 horses in four weeks, it doesn't feel right, but I'm not going to make any decision about that until I see how the horse comes out.”
“We'll make a final decision; we may take the whole two weeks to do that. Finally, I'd say at this point after three runs, maybe we'd take the blinkers off. He was initially a very unfocused horse as a 2-year-old last year, it was night-and-day difference in the morning [with blinkers] and it worked his first two starts…Now that he has some racing under his belt, he's getting a little bit too much on the engine, I'll probably tinker with that, too.”
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