There were a lot of relieved looks around Chad Brown's barn at Keeneland Racecourse the morning after the $1 million Bluegrass Stakes. After a lackluster performance in the Fountain of Youth in February, Good Magic bounced back in a big way, winning the Bluegrass on April 7. Snatching the lead around the far turn, the bright chestnut with the white blaze repelled multiple graded stakes winner Flameaway and powered home to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
"I was very relieved to see him take that next step forward and run to his works," Brown told Blood-Horse the morning after. "He had been training really well, and you cross your fingers that when they load in the gate, he runs in the afternoon the way he has been training in the morning."
Eleven years ago, the Hall of Famer Curlin and Chester County, PA's multiple stakes winner Hard Spun were arch rivals in the 2007 Triple Crown series. Today, they are top-flight stallions who teamed up to produce Good Magic in 2015. A flashy son of Curlin, Good Magic is out of the mare Glinda the Good by Hard Spun who was bred by Betty Moran's Brushwood Stable and raced in the red-and-white colors of Rick Porter's Foxhill Farm. Good Magic was purchased for $1 million by e Five Racing and Stonestreet Stable at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling sale.
The "e" stands for Bob Edwards and his five family members. He co-founded Boca Pharmacal in 1998 which evolved into the development and manufacturing of both branded and generic drugs. A resident of Boca Raton, Fla., Edwards sold the company for $220 million in 2014. He jumped into the racing game with astonishing results, capturing the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with New Money Honey and repeated the feat the next year with Rushing Falls rallying from ninth to win the $1 million contest. The same weekend Good Magic upset odds-on favorite Bolt d' Oro in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
The reigning juvenile male champion sits second on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 134 points. After redeeming himself in the Bluegrass Good Magic has his work cut out for him in the 144th renewal of the "Run for the Roses" on May 5.
"He really likes it at Keeneland, so we'll maybe keep him here for a couple weeks," Brown said. "Then we'd probably move to Churchill and have one work over there. I'm pretty confident he'll get the extra eighth of a mile in the Derby. It's shaping up as a nice crop of horses this year, and it should be quite a race."
The field of 3-year colts will be loaded with intrigue and a pair of budding wonder horses. It's as deep and talented a group of Derby contenders we've seen in a long time. Some pundits say it could be the best of all-time. In Derby preps it's been one monster performance after another. Good Magic, Audible (sired by Into Mischief), Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), Justify (Scat Daddy), Magnum Moon (Malibu Moon) and Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) are in the upper echelon.
Watching the final major Derby preps coast-to-coast was a game of one-upmanship. Audible showed his sharp talents in the $1 million Florida Derby returning from an 8-week layoff, closing off a sizzling pace and sustaining his powerful run to the wire, earning a 99 Beyer Speed Figure. Much was made of the colt’s workouts leading up to his Florida Derby romp where he appeared a little uninspired. Didn't matter, Audible delivered when it counted. With the brilliant cruising speed Audible can carry a long distance and his impressive change of gear can power him home. Owned by China Horse Club, Starlight Racing, Head of Plains Partners and WinStar Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, Audible has slugged it out in a pair of close finishes, so he's battled tested, a trait in high demand in the Derby scrum.
If you got up early on March 31 and caught the UAE Derby in Dubai you might have thought you were still dreaming. In his first dirt competition Mendelssohn uncorked a stunning 18 1/2 length victory, as well as breaking the track record at 1 3/16 miles. At the beginning of the year the late Scat Daddy colt was considered an overseas-based turf specialist. Four months later Mendelssohn has been stamped as the best foreign-based prospect yet to try his talents in the signature American classic-- a chaotic 20-horse field charging 10 furlongs in front of 150,000 raucous fans.
A half-brother to four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder, the dark bay colt was the $3 million sale topper for the Coolmore Partners at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Based in County Tipperary, Ireland, Coolmore is recognized as the premier racing and breeding operation in the world. Last fall Mendelssohn proved he can navigate the counter-clockwise, tighter-turn U. S. racing-- winning from post one in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. An anomaly in today's world, he has seven lifetime starts, winning four. Mendelssohn has now won three consecutive stakes on three different surfaces – dirt, synthetic, and grass – on three different continents.
And then there is Justify, who continues to not only live up to the hype but exceed it. He took over the top spot on the NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll and will likely be favored in the Kentucky Derby after winning the Santa Anita Derby (Grade-1) by three lengths over the more seasoned Bolt d'Oro, who had topped the poll for the first ten weeks. Justify improved his record to a perfect 3-for-3 and notched a lofty 107 Beyer Speed Figure. Since Justify was unraced at age 2, he'll be trying to buck history. He made his racing debut Feb. 18.
“He’s a beast. I’m just glad I have him,” said Bob Baffert, who has trained four Kentucky Derby winners.
“What you’re seeing right now is really just raw talent,” said jockey Mike Smith. “He’s got so much room to grow, to even get better, believe it or not. I think this race is going to put a lot more bottom into him."
It’s no small feat to go from unraced maiden to Grade-1 winner in a span of 48 days. Baffert has managed the monumental task masterfully. A strapping, muscular chestnut horse, his morning workouts have earned rave reviews for the fluidity of his stride and the way he accelerates so effortlessly. Another son of Scat Daddy, the striking colt is also extremely professional and bright-minded for such a lightly raced colt. He is owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing.
Tabbed a "freak" in this year's top-class crop of 3-year olds, Justify appears able to overcome his lack of experience and foundation. If he wins the Derby off of just three lifetime starts he will join Big Brown (2008) as the only colt to accomplish the feat in the past 103 years. He would also end the "Curse of Apollo." It now stands at 136 years-- the oldest curse in American sports. Not since 1882 has a horse won the Kentucky Derby not having raced at age two.
Another brilliant upstart expected to draw huge support is undefeated Magnum Moon, who began his racing career on Jan. 13. Tenacious with a level-headed professionalism, Magnum Moon has won two allowances, and the $400,000 Rebel Stakes where he put away a field of seasoned pros showing good stalking speed and a powerful late kick, registering a 97 Beyer Speed Figure. In his final tune-up for the Derby he scored a gate-to-wire, four length victory in the $1 Million Arkansas Derby at 1 1/8 mile on April 14. Magnum Moon picked up 100 qualifying points and now sits atop the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 150. The bay colt is campaigned by Robert and Lawana Low.
“I was very pleased with the effort,” said his trainer Todd Pletcher. “He showed us yet another dimension by going to the lead. I was a little concerned he drifted late, but it looked like he spooked at the tire tracks at the eighth-pole. He finished with good energy and was pulling away from some nice horses."
Magnum Moon has a pedigree which features such stalwarts as A.P. Indy, Unbridled’s Song, Seattle Slew, Unbridled and Giant’s Causeway among the six stallions in his second and third generations, so the mile and a quarter should be right in his wheelhouse. Ridden by Luis Saez, his excellent tactical speed should enable the colt to get a good position at the start of Derby 144. He’s handled three very different dirt racing surfaces while stretching out in distance each time. He races smartly and stays out of trouble. With a May 9 foaling date Magnum Moon is the youngest of Todd Pletcher's four Derby entries, but it looks like the colt could be sitting on his biggest performance yet.
It's clear Bolt d'Oro's slugfest with McKinzie down the stretch in the San Felipe Stakes took some starch out of the colt in the Santa Anita Derby on April 7. Chasing wonder horse Justify on the lead, the bay colt couldn't offer much of a challenge with Justify doubling his 1 ½-length lead from the furlong pole to the wire. Still, Bolt has a shot of winning the Derby. ? A tactical horse with a lot of heart, he'll be piloted by Victor Espinoza, his third jockey in three races after Javier Castellano elected to ride Audible.
Espinoza has won three Kentucky Derbies and has worked the colt in the morning. As a youngster Bolt d' Oro often took trail rides up through the mountains at owner/trainer Mick Ruis' Montana ranch where he would regularly spy deer and elk, bears, wolves and mountain goats-- an experience that might come in handy in the wild 20-horse stampede the first Saturday in May.
I’m ready to toss out the history books: 1. Justify 2. Magnum Moon 3. Good Magic 4. Bolt d'Oro