Horse Racing Capsules: Will Uncle Mo be a go for the Kentucky Derby?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — To go or not to go? Uncle Mo's connections still weren't saying whether the talented colt will run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
The sleek bay colt was recovering from a stomach ailment, but looked good as he galloped over the Churchill Downs track on Thursday, though appearances could be deceiving. Uncle Mo looks about as exotic as his name — average size, with no distinguishing marks like the white splash on Zenyatta's forehead. But his power is apparent as soon as he starts running.
Last year's juvenile champion, Uncle Mo is the 9-2 second choice behind 4-1 early favorite Dialed In.
Owner Mike Repole anxiously awaited results from the latest vet exam, and promised to end the drama by announcing a decision Friday.
"If he's not what we deem to be 100 percent tomorrow, he's not going to be 100 percent on Saturday," he said.
Repole said he won't sacrifice Uncle Mo's health to satisfy his 30-year dream of having a horse in America's greatest race. Either way, he won't be shut out. He has Stay Thirsty in the full field of 20 horses.
Still, the fast-talking Queens native, who got rich selling his Vitaminwater company to Coca-Cola, doesn't want to leave his best horse in the barn.
"It's tough," he said. "Racing needs superstars and if he's 100 percent, Uncle Mo could be that superstar."
He sure looked it after winning last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile on the same Churchill Downs track and taking a perfect record into the Wood Memorial. There, Uncle Mo led the field with a quarter-mile to go, but two horses passed him and he finished third by a length. Afterward, Uncle Mo's appetite fell off and raised suspicions. An exam turned up the stomach problem.
Outwardly, Uncle Mo looks as healthy as, well, a horse. Internally, no one's sure exactly what's going on. That's the quandary.
Uncle Mo could be fine. Or Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher could be risking a repeat of the Wood Memorial.
"If he runs and he runs seventh, Todd and I will look at each other and guess he wasn't 100 percent," Repole said. "If he runs and he wins by seven lengths, we can look at each other and say 'Wow, we're geniuses.'"
Count three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert among those who discount Uncle Mo's bellyache.
"From what I've seen visually, there's nothing there that tells me the horse isn't ready to run," the trainer of Midnight Interlude said. "He's a good horse, I'm not believing that crap."
Pletcher wasn't talking Thursday. But he's said Uncle Mo responded well to treatment and his appetite has returned. Repole said he's gone off much of his medication.
"We got to listen to what Uncle Mo is telling us," Repole said, "and he's telling us he's getting better. He's telling us he's progressing.
"If the three vets say,'yes' and Todd says,'no,' the answer is 'no,' " he added.
It's not as easy or obvious a call as last year, when Pletcher's can't-miss horse, Eskendereya, dropped out at the start of Derby week with a career-ending leg injury. Or in 2009, when Derby favorite I Want Revenge was scratched on the morning of the race with a bad ankle.
"I've seen this movie. Everyone else has seen this movie," Repole said. "It's a horrible movie and I don't want to play a major role in it, either."
Neither does jockey John Velazquez, who is still searching for his Derby win after 12 tries.
"If he's right, I don't think he can be beaten," Velazquez said. "I'm expecting a big race, nothing else."
The ultimate decision on Uncle Mo might fall to Velazquez. If the colt doesn't feel right warming up, Velazquez has the obligation to notify the track veterinarians that Uncle Mo isn't ready to run 1¼ miles.
Of course, it may not come to that if Friday's decision is no go.
If Uncle Mo doesn't make the Derby, it's possible he could turn up in the Preakness on May 21. If not, Repole said he'll wait until Saratoga in July.
"I want this horse to be the best horse in the country and not just for me, but for racing," he said.
Jockeys jostling for Derby position
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Jerry Hissam should have the easiest job in America leading up to the Kentucky Derby. How hard can it be, really, to be the agent for jockey Calvin Borel, the closest thing there is to a sure thing when it comes to the Run for the Roses?
Borel is the only rider to capture three Derbys in four years, winning on favorites and long shots alike while becoming a folk hero at Churchill Downs with his rail-hugging rides to glory.
Yet when Borel's preferred Derby mount Elite Alex flamed out in the Arkansas Derby on April 16, Hissam's cell phone didn't exactly start vibrating incessantly in his pocket.
Ask Hissam why and he just shrugs his shoulders.
"I can't explain it, go ask them," Hissam said while nodding toward the barns of prominent horse trainers like Todd Pletcher, Nick Zito and Bob Baffert, all three of whom have live shots in the 137th edition of the Derby this Saturday.
Zito will saddle 4-1 morning line favorite Dialed In, who will start from post No. 8 with jockey Julien Leparoux. John Velazquez will be atop 9-2 second-choice Uncle Mo for Pletcher while Baffert will go for his fourth Derby win with 10-1 shot Midnight Interlude and jockey Victor Espinoza.
Borel eventually found a ride 12 days before the race with Sunland Derby winner Twice the Appeal, who will start from the third-post in the 20-horse field, not far from Borel's beloved rail.
So you won't hear him complaining about the last-second opportunity. Besides, he was hardly the only high-profile jockey still looking for a mount for horse racing's version of the Super Bowl.
Garrett Gomez, who guided Blame to an upset win over unbeaten Zenyatta under the twin spires in last fall's Breeders' Cup Classic, didn't get on Master of Hounds until last Friday. Kent Desormeaux, a three-time Derby winner, will be watching from race from the jocks' room barring any last-second change.
On the surface, securing the best riders in the biggest race would seem to make sense. Yet that's hardly the case.
Finding a Derby ride is equal parts talent and luck. This year's race features a handful riders making their Derby debut, though not all debuts are created equal.
For every Rosie Napravnik, who is making her first Derby start at age 23 aboard Pants on Fire, there is a Jon Court, who is finally getting in the Derby at age 50 with Archarcharch.
Though Court would seem like a lock considering father-in-law Jinks Fires is the trainer for the Arkansas Derby winner, he's not taking anything for granted.
"I don't consider myself in the Derby until the moment I'm in the gate riding down that track, because anything can happen," said Court.
He should know. He's had several near misses in the Derby, none more painful that last spring when he was taken off Line of David five days before the race.
It was a bitter pill for a rider with over 3,000 career victories at tracks all over the country. Then again, he's gotten used to disappointment when it comes to the Derby.
More than once over the years Court has found himself scanning the list of Derby jockeys shaking his head at how less-heralded peers found their way into the race while he watched it on TV.
Court's been around long enough to know it's not so much how you ride, but who you ride for.
"They have some solid connections and when you have those connections you have an upper hand playing the politics," said Court, who will start from the rail in the Derby. "Politics makes a big part of the game and I've been told on more than one occasion not to even use that word politics, but it comes up. I try not to shy away from the facts of the industry and that's just part of it."
So is good fortune. Rajiv Maragh didn't get on Mucho Macho Man until regular rider Eibar Coa sustained a spinal injury in February.
When the phone doesn't ring, it doesn't necessarily mean the rider isn't respected.
Animal Kingdom owner Barry Irwin knows there is nobody better at Churchill Downs than Borel. Yet when Animal Kingdom worked his way into the Derby picture, Irwin gave the mount to Robby Albarado, who is 0-for-12 on the first Saturday in May.
Irwin's familiarity with Albarado trumped any notion of seeing if Borel was available.
"I think this whole game is a matter of people in their own little camps," Irwin said. "People like riding guys that they get along with and are familiar with and I think maybe Calvin might have ridden one horse for us. We just haven't had a trainer that used him. Obviously he's a hell of a rider but we don't know him that well and he's just not part of our group."
Borel wasn't part of Victor Flores' group either, but the owner of Twice the Appeal made a play for Borel even though Christian Santiago Reyes put the colt in the Run for the Roses with a scintillating ride in the $800,000 Sunland Derby. The same race produced 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird who Borel brought home as a 50-1 dreamer.
Dumping Santiago Reyes wasn't a move the owners took lightly, but running in the Derby is a costly proposition. It costs $50,000 just to get into the gate. For a group dealing with its first case of Derby fever, they figured to go all-in with a guy who knows his way around like few others.
"When you're in a 20-horse field, 14 of them or (more) are going to have troubled trips," said trainer Jeff Bonde. "The reality is (the owners) have to be happy with what's going down."
Normally, however, owners leave it up to the trainers to find the right jockey. When it comes to the Derby, those decisions are often made months in advance.
Pletcher, who won his first Derby with Borel and Super Saver last year, had a chance at securing Borel on Stay Thirsty but opted to give the ride to Ramon Dominguez because of their lengthy working relationship.
"I think a lot of times if you have a rider who has been with you for a long time you want to stay with that commitment and stay faithful to those guys," Pletcher said. "You kind of want to go with who got you here kind of theory."
The lure of dropping a rider for a more accomplished one doesn't always work. Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas took Terry Thompson off Dublin following last year's Derby after the horse finished seventh. Thompson was replaced by Gomez, who also failed to hit the board with Dublin in the Preakness, finishing fifth in a less-crowded field.
"We should have stayed with Terry Thompson," Lukas said. "The horse ran better for Terry Thompson than anybody but who the hell is Terry Thompson?"
It's a sentiment Hissam used to hear for years about Borel before Borel became a Derby regular a decade ago. Borel's success hasn't gone to his head. It hasn't gone to Hissam's either. He allows he doesn't aggressively court owners. He's been around the barns long enough to know they'll come to him when the time is right.
"You could go to a trainer's house and sleep on their doorstep and if they don't want you, they'll step right over you on their way out the door," Hissam said. "When they want you, they'll call you (in the bathroom)."
-- Will Graves
Commentary: Chasing racing history aboard Pants on Fire
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Rosie Napravnik learned to ride horses before she could walk. Even so, being the first female jockey to win the Kentucky Derby was not her driving ambition.
"I was determined to be the youngest jockey ever to win the Triple Crown, not just the first female," she said not too long ago. "But that was supposed to happen when I was 16."
It didn't, of course, since Napravnik turned 23 in February and just picked up her first Triple Crown-caliber mount, a dark bay colt named Pants On Fire. For all the progress the sport has made, his name suggests what most of the men who still control the thoroughbred racket would have to experience before turning over several million dollars worth of horseflesh to a woman rider.
"It still is a man's world," Napravnik said. "You still get that just about every day: 'I don't want to ride a girl. The owner doesn't want to ride a girl. You're not as strong, you're not as this, you're not as that.'
"It's probably not nearly what it used to be," she added, "but it's still out there."
Diane Crump was the first woman to ride in both a parimutuel race — in 1969, at Hialeah Park, where she needed a police escort to get in — and the Kentucky Derby the following year. Since then, only four of her fellow travelers, including Julie Krone, the most successful, best known and only female rider in the Hall of Fame, have been up in the saddle on the first Saturday in May. The last was Rosemary Homeister Jr., in 2003. None has finished higher than 11th.
That should have changed two years ago, when 50-to-1 shot Mine That Bird charged up the rail to steal the Derby. Chantal Sutherland had been his regular rider, lost him for two races during a change of trainers, then showed up at Churchill Downs three days before the race with a promise from one of the owners she would get the mount for the big race. It went to veteran Calvin Borel instead.
"I found out about it from reading the Racing Form," Sutherland said in a phone interview Thursday. "I never learned the reason. If somebody had said, 'We need a jockey with experience; he's already won it,' I would have said fair enough.
"But generally, I've been lucky," she added. "There's still the odd person out there who says, 'I won't use her because she's a girl,' though they usually couch it some other way, like 'she goes too wide in the turns, or doesn't know how to switch the stick.'"
Napravnik isn't likely to get that dreaded last-minute call, in no small part because Kelly Breen, who trains Pants on Fire, might be too afraid to pick up the phone.
"I'd rather have her on our side than have to run against her. And not to put this in a bad way, but Rosie is a redhead and she's got that fire in her eyes. When she loses," he said, rolling his eyes, "she's definitely not a happy camper."
At that point, Breen paused, glanced behind him and turned back, relieved.
"I had to look over my shoulder when I said that," he chuckled. "Like, is Rosie anywhere nearby?"
For all that, Napravnik hardly looks imposing. She stands 5-foot-2 and weighs 111 pounds in full riding gear, with her hair bundled in a bandanna tucked beneath her helmet. She credits frequent fights with an older brother for toughening her up.
Yet in a sense, her whole life was preparation for the racetrack. Her mother, Cindy, ran a horse-training center in New Jersey while raising Rosie — her full name is Anna Rose — and two older siblings. All three grew up working around horses and in the barn. Rosie was riding by age 2, racing ponies at 7 and when she got her hands on a video called "The Jewels of the Triple Crown," knew what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
"Julie wasn't in the video," Napravnik said, referring to Krone, "but she was the only female jockey I'd ever heard of."
Krone stepped away from racing in 2004 and remains the only woman to have won a Triple Crown race — the 1993 Belmont, aboard Colonial Affair. She said earlier this year what she admired most about Napravnik was her strength and "chutzpah." Flattering as the comments and comparisons are, Napravnik insists on doing things her own way.
She not only won her debut race at Pimlico in 2005, atop a filly named Ringofdiamonds, she had the presence of mind to remember something trainer Dickie Small, one of her mentors, told her years earlier, when he first let her do odd jobs around his barn.
"I told her the day she starts riding to hit the horse left-handed under the camera so all the jocks' agents could see," Small recently told the Daily Racing Form. "She's galloping along five or six in front through the stretch, and boom! Rosie belted her left-handed.
"I'd completely forgotten what I told her," he added, "but she remembered."
That wasn't the only thing, Napravnik's mentors said about her.
"One," she recalled, "said the thing that everyone hates about me is what makes me so good, and that's the way I carry myself. I feel like I have to be as tough as all the guys, and I am. I do this every day with them. I don't let them mess with me. ...
"I have to be like that, I've always been like that. It's actually gotten me," she said, "really far."
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.
Notebook: Court tackles the rail in Kentucky Derby
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Jon Court will try to make the best of a bad situation from the rail in the Kentucky Derby. Court is the rider of Archarcharch who landed post No. 1, an undesirable spot in the 20-horse race on Saturday.
In a field that large, the horse down on the inside can be squeezed out of contention in the stampede from the starting gate to the first turn.
That's what happened to Lookin At Lucky last year. The 6-1 favorite was roughed up at the start and fell back to 18th before rallying to finish sixth.
Court is fortunate to have a versatile colt. Archarcharch rallied from far back to win the Arkansas Derby. He has also won when running much closer to the pace.
"The best run is not necessarily taking him way back," he said. "If the speed out there is blistering, and there is a speed duel, you'll see him further back than if there was a slower pace. I'll talk it over with Jinks and see what our tactical plan is."
"Jinks" is William Fires, Court's father-in-law and Archarcharch's trainer. This is the first Derby experience for both.
The 50-year-old Court has ridden more than 3,000 winners, including more than 300 at Churchill Downs. To prepare for his initial Derby ride, he's watched old Derby videos.
"Some of those made me a little nervous," Court said. "I left with a knot in my stomach. I am going to go back and look again at those races."
Court has waited a long time for the opportunity with this 10-1 shot. The last horse to win from post No. 1 was Ferdinand in 1986 with Bill Shoemaker, who at 54 was the oldest rider to win the Derby.
Court is pulling for another senior moment.
"That was one of the comical things we talked about after the draw," Court said. "Ferdinand, the 1-hole, one of the oldest riders in the race. It's a good combination. If the ingredients all come together again, that would be a fine result."
MAKING HISTORY: Kathleen O'Connell and Kathy Ritvo will both try to become the first woman to saddle a Kentucky Derby winner.
O'Connell sends out Watch Me Go, a 50-1 shot from post No. 20, while Ritvo trains Mucho Macho Man, a 12-1 shot from post No. 13.
For O'Connell, it has been a long, hard journey to her first Derby.
"I feel like I've been a trailblazer since time began, to be honest with you," said O'Connell, who began her career at now defunct Detroit Race Course. "I've been on the track since 1970. My first license said 'exercise boy' because there wasn't even a category to check for a girl."
A Derby win would fulfill a longtime dream.
"Whether I was a man or woman, it would be an awesome feeling," O'Connell said.
For any women who want to follow her path, O'Connell said: "It's a tough business, but in any walk of life or any occupation, perseverance and patience are the two most notable things."
Watch Me Go earned his way here with a victory in the Tampa Bay Derby.
DREAM BET: Rico Flores has his own theory on how to place a winning bet on the wide-open Derby.
"You can just take five names, tape 'em to a wall and throw a dart at it," the Chicago businessman said, laughing.
If the dart lands in the right spot, Flores could be a very rich man.
He will place the bet of a lifetime Saturday after winning the Derby Dream Bet Sweepstakes sponsored by Churchill Downs and CNBC. The contest allows Flores to place a $100,000 wager on one horse to win the Derby.
Last year Houston-area software designer Glen Fullerton decided to put the money on Super Saver and walked away with $900,000 after jockey Calvin Borel guided the colt to victory.
It's a tough act to follow. Fullerton said Thursday he spent some of his windfall on a new car and invested most of the rest. He said he likely won't offer Flores much advice, but that he likes Midnight Interlude and 4-1 morning line favorite Dialed In.
Flores was noncommittal, saying he likely won't decide on a selection until shortly before post time. A longtime racing fan, Flores attends the Derby regularly and often finds himself at the betting window, though he typically places wagers with "a lot less zeroes."
Though he considers himself a relatively shrewd handicapper, Flores admits there is part of him that would love to let it ride on a long shot like Watch Me Go, who is 50-1.
Common sense, however, will likely take over when it comes time to take the briefcase filled with $100,000 and exchange it for a win ticket.
He's hoping a win would help with his retirement fund.
"I've been bumping that up for a while," he said. "Hopefully Saturday's a big day."
DEVIL GONE: Devil May Care, the filly who ran 10th in last year's Derby, was euthanized Wednesday due to lymphosarcoma, a form of cancer.
She missed the 2010 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic after veterinarians diagnosed a case of hepatitis. The 4-year-old won 5 of 9 races lifetime and earned $724,000.
Joyful Victory leads talented Kentucky Oaks field
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Larry Jones tried the retirement thing. Didn't take.
Oh, he did all the things he'd put off for decades while training horses everywhere from Arkansas to Kentucky to Delaware. He hopped on his lawnmower. He took a few naps on his couch. He hung out with his grandkids. He got healthy.
Yet Jones never really left the game following his abrupt departure 18 months ago. He spent a few hours each morning at the barns watching wife Cindy handle their talented stable.
"Once she turned her back, though, I was out the door," Jones said with a laugh.
That is, until Cindy told him he'd spent too much time on the recliner and it was time to get back to work. Standing outside his barn at Churchill Downs on Thursday morning, Jones acknowledges he didn't so much retire as take a much-needed break.
"It's good to be back," Jones said. "I feel better now. I feel better than I have in 15-20 years."
Of course, having a racing roster filled with horses like Joyful Victory tends to help.
The 3-year-old filly will start from the rail as the 5-2 favorite for Friday's $1 million Kentucky Oaks, the female version of the Kentucky Derby.
Joyful Victory is 2-for-2 since moving to Jones' barn, winning the Honeybee and Fantasy Stakes by a combined 15¾ lengths.
She's done it so easily for jockey Mike Smith — who rode retired superstar mare Zenyatta — Jones says Joyful Victory reminds him of Eight Belles.
The massive gray filly finished second in the 2008 Derby but was euthanized moments after hitting the wire when she broke both of her front legs while galloping out.
Her death thrust Jones into an uncomfortable spotlight as animal rights groups questioned the need to run a filly against the boys. The ensuing success of Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra — who won consecutive Horse of the Year Awards after beating the guys — quieted any discussion of safety issues but Jones took the criticism personally.
He returned to the Derby in 2009 with Friesan Fire, who went off as the favorite only to slide all the way to 18th. Six months later Jones stepped away citing emotional strain.
Now he's re-energized.
"I don't look any better, but I feel better," he said with a laugh.
His sabbatical helped him realize he wasn't quite ready to give up the kind of success he'd worked so hard to achieve. It took him more than 20 years to get to the top of the heap. Leaving just seemed silly.
Though he has slimmed down his operation. He has less than 60 horses in training now compared to over 100 two years ago. It has allowed him to give his horses more personal attention and let him be more choosy about who he hops on.
"I don't want to be a racing manager," Jones said. "A lot of trainers are fine with that and do a good job with it but that's not me and I realized I wasn't happy doing it."
He's only truly happy when he's working on his horses, and he thinks he has something special in Joyful Victory. He sees more than a passing resemblance between Joyful Victory and Eight Belles. Joyful Victory, like Eight Belles, is gray and, like Eight Belles, seems to be at home on the dirt under the twin spires.
"It's uncanny how much they are like each other," said Jones, who won the Oaks in 2008 with Proud Spell.
Beating the rest of the 13-horse field in the 1 1/8-mile race, however, won't be easy. The Oaks is filled with a number of live shots, including Her Smile, owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay.
Flay purchased Her Smile following a second-place finish in the Comely Stakes and sent her to trainer Todd Pletcher. Flay won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last year with More Than Real.
He called it the biggest win he's had in horse racing. Donning the lilies with an Oaks victory would almost certainly trump it. Her Smile will start from the seventh post with Garrett Gomez in the saddle.
"We're hoping for lightning to strike twice," Flay said.
So is Jones now that he's back to where he once belonged. And don't expect him to go anywhere anytime soon.
"I rode a lot of cheap horses for a lot of years," he said. "I'm going to keep riding now that I've got the good ones. I'm not quitting now."
-- Will Graves
Pinnacle track gives up 2-11 thoroughbred license
HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is without an operating thoroughbred horse track after Pinnacle Race Course's surrender of its license and simulcast permit. The Detroit News says the Michigan Gaming Control Board accepted the surrender Wednesday.
In a letter released by the Michigan Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, Gaming Control Board executive director Richard S. Kalm says Pinnacle is suffering from "financial viability issues."
Kalm says the surrender of the license doesn't mean Pinnacle couldn't apply for the 2012 horse racing season. The track is in Wayne County's Huron Township, near Detroit Metropolitan Airport and about 20 miles southwest of Detroit. It opened in 2008.
The track's website was disabled Thursday night.
Arena Elvira wins Belmont feature
NEW YORK (AP) — Arena Elvira beat Opus A by 5¼ lengths Thursday in the $55,000 allowance feature for fillies and mares at Belmont Park. The 4-year-old filly posted her third win in seven starts. Jose Lezcano rode for trainer Bill Mott as she ran the one mile in 1:35.61.
Arena Elvira paid $7.40, $3.20 and $2.30. Opus A, the even-money favorite, returned $2.90 and $2.10. Speigthtful Affair paid $2.10 to show.
