Unbeaten Champion Essential Quality Favored for Kentucky Derby thoroughbreddailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thoroughbreddailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Louisville, Ky.
The name Phil Thomas does not appear in present-day past performances. The last race on his training record was run more than three years ago. His last winner was at the end of the summer of 2013. But something he said resonates to this day with horseplayers handicapping the Kentucky Derby.
“I bet if you looked at it,” he said, “horses that won the Derby came fast the last quarter-mile of their last prep.”
That was how Jennie Rees recalled a seminal conversation years ago with Thomas. Now a publicist for racetracks and a horsemen’s association, Rees back then was a respected turf writer for
With several bigger-name horses either bypassing or not qualifying for the Run for the Roses, Ron Flatter bemoans too much filler in the field at Churchill Downs.
Trainers have said their 3-year-olds might be better suited to a shorter distance or a later date. In some cases, that might actually be true. It also might be true that they want no part of Essential Quality, now best-priced in Las Vegas futures as a 3-1 favorite. It could be that horsemen are conceding that this maturing crop of 2018 foals is thin.
Concert Tour was the latest big defection. Bob Baffert decided after a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby that Gary and Mary West’s homebred by Street Sense was not training up to a level that would be ready for the prime time of Churchill Downs. The Preakness beckons for him instead.
Wesley Ward speedster Golden Pal ruled out of Royal Ascot
Fri 16 Apr 2021
Wesley Ward hopes to have star sprinter
Golden Pal back to his best in time for the Coolmore Nunthorpe after being forced to rule him out of an intended appearance at Royal Ascot.
Narrowly beaten by The Lir Jet when runner-up in the Norfolk Stakes at the Royal meeting in June, the son of Uncle Mo went one better in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at his trainer’s home track of Keeneland in November.
Ward had hoped to give the three-year-old a prep run this spring before returning to Ascot for the King’s Stand – but Golden Pal will not be back until later in the season after suffering a minor setback.