Hold Me Back, Square Eddie, Mr. Hot Stuff work

Last updated: 4/26/09 4:32 PM

Square Eddie worked after the renovation break
(Ed Van Meter/Horsephotos.com)

On Sunday morning, three contenders worked in advance of Saturday’s Kentucky
Derby (G1). Lane’s End S. (G2) winner HOLD ME BACK (Giant’s Causeway) and
Breeders’ Futurity (G1) romper SQUARE EDDIE (Smart Strike) tuned up at Churchill
Downs, while Santa Anita Derby (G1) third MR. HOT STUFF (Tiznow) drilled at
Santa Anita.

Beneath the Twin Spires before 7 a.m. (EDT), Hold Me Back closed out his
serious training for Derby 135 by working five furlongs in company in 1:01 3/5
on the fast track. The move was the 13th fastest of 24 at the distance.

With three-time Kentucky Derby-winning rider Kent Desormeaux in the saddle,
the Bill Mott trainee broke off about 1 1/2 lengths behind the maiden Flying
Warrior (Fusaichi Pegasus) at the five-eighths pole, caught up to his workmate
at the head of the stretch and moved by before the eighth-pole.

Hold Me Back reeled off fractions of :13, :25 1/5, :37 1/5 and galloped out
six furlongs in 1:14 4/5.

“I thought the work was very good,” Mott said. “He was under a hold the whole
way and finished well on his own. He appeared to handle the track very well and
that is a good sign. Kent said he still wanted to gallop out after a mile.”

Hold Me Back’s lone race on a dirt track resulted in a fifth-place finish in
the Remsen S. (G2) at Aqueduct to close out his two-year-old campaign.

“He had trained well there, but he just didn’t show up that day,” Mott said.
“He was immature at the time and I am willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
He trained well on dirt before and has since.”

Hold Me Back is coming off a runner-up effort in the Blue Grass S. (G1) on
Keeneland’s Polytrack.

Square Eddie will enter the Derby off a third-place finish in the Lexington
(Ed Van Meter/Horsephotos.com)

Shortly after the renovation break at approximately 8:30, Square Eddie took
to the track. Following a 1 1/2-mile gallop around the Churchill Downs oval, he
put it in drive for exercise rider Tony Romero and drilled four furlongs in :50
1/5.

The Doug O’Neill pupil broke off at the three-eighths pole and finished up at
the seven-eighths, with a solid gallop-out around the clubhouse turn. Clockers
caught Square Eddie in splits of :12 4/5, :25, :37 3/5, with a five-furlong
gallop-out time in 1:03 1/5.

O’Neill, along with his brother Dennis, were in the grandstand overseeing the
exercise. The O’Neills arrived Saturday evening and are signed on to stay
through Derby 135 on Saturday.

“I thought it was an awesome work,” Doug O’Neill said afterward. “We’re very
pleased with it. We know we’re asking a lot of this horse, but we think he’s up
to it.”

Square Eddie was sidelined by a shin injury after his runner-up effort in the
January 17 San Rafael S. (G3), and only returned to action with a third-place
finish in the April 18 Lexington S. (G2) at Keeneland.

“Obviously, when you want a horse to come back in two weeks — following a
three-month break in his racing schedule — to run in a race as tough as the
Kentucky Derby, you’re asking a lot,” the trainer continued. “The only way you
could do that is to think you’ve got a ‘super’ horse. And in our minds that’s
what he is — a ‘super’ horse.”

The trainer indicated that Square Eddie would get a day off tomorrow and walk
the shedrow, followed by a jog day Tuesday, gallop days Wednesday and Thursday,
then jogs on Friday and Saturday as his final preparations for the Run for the
Roses.

Over the Pro-Ride at Santa Anita, Mr. Hot Stuff worked five furlongs in 1:00
2/5, which trainer Eoin Harty dubbed a “a nice, easy move.”

“We didn’t ask him to do too much today,” Harty said. “He just went about it
in good fashion and finished up well. He’ll fly tomorrow.”

The full brother to Colonel John, the sixth-place finisher in the 2008
Kentucky Derby, will be stabled in Barn 41.

Harty, who was flying to Louisville himself Sunday, said rider plans still
have not been finalized for Mr. Hot Stuff.

“We’re still working on it,” he said. “We’ll have one by Wednesday morning.”

Entries for Kentucky Derby 135 will close at 10 a.m. on Wednesday with the
order of post position selection starting at 12:04 p.m. and the actual post
position selections beginning at 12:15 p.m.

Mr. Hot Stuff and Hold Me Back are both owned by WinStar Farm, who could have
as many as three runners in the Derby, if Lexington winner ADVICE (Chapel Royal)
lines up.