While Repole Stable’s Stay Thirsty got down to business with a recorded work
on Easter Sunday, his champion stablemate Uncle Mo galloped early on the rainy
morning at Churchill Downs. The Todd Pletcher trainee was a heavy favorite for
the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby until his third-place finish to Toby’s Corner in the
Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
Uncle Mo was found to be suffering from a gastrointestinal infection after
the race and has been treated with antibiotics since that discovery. Repole’s
colt is scheduled to work on Tuesday — his first major training move since his
return to Churchill Downs last week.
“I think he’s really responding well to treatment — his last 48 hours in
particular,” Pletcher said. “His appetite is the best it’s been since the Wood,
and I’m feeling really good about the direction we’re heading. Like I said when
we got here, we need to have a really good 19 days and, so far, we’ve had a
really good five here. We need to have 13 more, but we’re really, really
pleased with the progress we’re making at the moment.”
Jockey John Velazquez will fly to Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday and will be
in the saddle for Uncle Mo’s work, which is scheduled at approximately 8:30 a.m.
(EDT) during the training period for Derby and Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks hopefuls.
Pletcher said Uncle Mo would work five furlongs in company with his Repole-owned
stablemate Calibrachoa, the four-year-old winner of the Grade 3 Tom Fool at
Aqueduct on March 5. The son of Southern Image is scheduled to run in the Grade
2 Churchill Downs Stakes at seven furlongs on Kentucky Derby Day.
“We’re looking for a good, solid work,” Pletcher said. “We’ll be looking for
a similar work to what we got from Stay Thirsty today.
“One of the good things about what he has is that we haven’t had to miss
those daily gallops. Normally, I maybe would have worked him today, but I
decided to give him a couple of more days just to continue to let the medication
kick in. With the results we’re seeing, it’s working, so we’ll go on Tuesday and
hopefully build off that. We haven’t had to adjust his training much at all.”
Pletcher’s annual spring visit to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby is
different this year as the five-time Eclipse Award winner as America’s top
trainer has arrived as the defending winner of America’s greatest race. It was
pointed out by a reporter that he no longer has to answer the question about
when he would grab that elusive Kentucky Derby victory, a query that elicited a
broad smile from Pletcher.
“Winning the Derby is awesome — it’s great,” said Pletcher, who earned his
first Derby trophy last year with Super Saver. “It doesn’t change your life in a
lot of ways. The feed man still wants to get paid, your wife still thinks you
work too much and if you get beat in the Wood Memorial everybody wants to know
why.
“I don’t have to answer that specific question, but a lot of the other ones
are still there.”
In other Kentucky Derby news:
Trained by Kelly Breen, Pants on Fire is stabled in Barn 27. Rosie Napravnik
Zayat Stables’ Nehro, runner-up in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and Grade 1
Assistant Scott Blasi, like every other Derby trainer on the grounds, is
“A lot depends on how good a seal he gets on the racetrack,” Blasi said. “I
Arnold Zetcher’s Midnight Interlude, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita
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Just for Fun Stable’s Decisive Moment, runner-up in the Grade 3 Spiral in his
latest, is scheduled to work Thursday.
Trainer Peter Miller plans to work Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Kevin
Tsujihara’s Comma to the Top at Hollywood Park Monday. Patrick Valenzuela will
pick up the Derby mount on the honest gelding, who was just denied by Midnight
Interlude in the Santa Anita Derby.