1. Command and Control: Commandment landed in the Fountain of Youth after two open victories, but the quality of the fields he defeated was suspect. That can no longer be said. The Into Mischief colt achieved his first Derby prep with a win over Chief Wallabee, with respected runners Solitude Dude, Bravaro and Napoleon Solo further back. He jumped the Churchill Downs Derby points leaderboard at 50, good for fourth after the weekend, and his strong gallop out after the win convinced trainer Brad Cox that extra distance beyond the Fountain of Youth’s 1 1/16 miles will be beneficial in the coming weeks. Cox plans to turn his attention to the $1 million Curlin Florida Derby on March 28 at Gulfstream for his final Kentucky Derby preparation. “He had to fight to win and he galloped well again,” Cox said. “[Jockey] Irad [Ortiz Jr.] said to ask him to gallop past the second wire and that he had plenty of horses. … [The Florida Derby] is the logical place. You just want to make sure that he comes out okay, and that we don’t need another week or something with him. You always put on the trainer’s hat. That’s where we are.”
2. ‘Main’ candidate: Chief Wallabee turned heads in South Florida when he won his debut, a seven-furlong race, by a length and a half at Gulfstream on January 10. He was one of two stallions trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott to win on that card, and while the other, Thunderably, is off the Kentucky Derby route, Chief Wallabee is very much in the mix after his gutsy second-place finish to Commandment in the Fountain of Youth. He is now at 10e on Churchill’s leaderboard by 20 points, and Mott, who entered Chief Wallabee at the Fountain of Youth after a Gulfstream fee race failed to attract enough entries, told Daily Racing Form’s David Grening he would plot the colt’s Kentucky Derby path as carefully as possible, but with the Florida Derby preferred. “He ran the track well twice,” Mott said. “There’s something to be said for running here. It’s Grade 1 [stakes]. This is very important for a well-bred colt.” Mott has yet to win the Florida Derby in his more than forty-year career; he finished second last year to eventual Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year Sovereignty.
3. Head of the class? Well, it’s too early to tell… but Class President will certainly have even more supporters after his thrilling nose victory over last-place Southwest Stakes winner Silent Tactic in Sunday’s Rebel at Oaklawn Park. Uncle Mo’s son joined from Gulfstream Park, where he had won on debut and then finished second to subsequent Fountain of Youth third-place Solitude Dude in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes. His speed figures improved during those two starts, and the colt made another jump in the Rebel as he underwent a two-turn test for the first time. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, aboard Swale, traveled with the colt to Arkansas and gave him an educational stalk-and-pounce ride to take a brief lead at the top of the stretch. Afterwards, Class President showed remarkable tenacity in his third start. “Very nice when you ask everything they can, and they give it to you,” Velazquez said. Pletcher told Daily Racing Form’s Mary Rampellini that he would evaluate several options for the colt’s next start, including training for the Kentucky Derby.
4. New York Groove: Iron Honor’s victory Saturday in the Gotham Stakes was somewhat overshadowed by the Derby’s performances at Gulfstream and Oaklawn in the ensuing hours, but perhaps it shouldn’t be. Making only his second career start after impressively winning a six-furlong maiden race at Aqueduct on December 13, the Nyquist colt was very professional as he powered past pacesetter Crown the Buckeye and then held off that enemy’s rebid late to score by a length in the one-turn mile Gotham. Trainer Chad Brown said afterward that he would keep Iron Honor in the Big Apple, with the April 4 Wood Memorial Stakes as his final preparation for the Kentucky Derby. The Wood will be held at 1 1/8 miles and around two turns, which would be Iron Honor’s first race in that configuration. Nevertheless… “I don’t want to move the horse around too much,” Brown said. “I’ll hedge on that, as bad a winter as we had in New York, the law of averages will hopefully move in the right direction here. … He’s 2-for-2 at the Aqueduct surface races, so if he comes out healthy, he’ll train in New York and run in the Wood.”
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