Carpe Diem staying at Keeneland ‘for now,’ while Ocho returns to California

Carpe Diem staying at Keeneland ‘for now,’ while Ocho
returns to California

Carpe Diem’s two biggest victories have come in Lexington (Keeneland/Coady Photography) The morning after the 91st running of the $1 million Blue Grass (G1), the connections of winner Carpe Diem (Giant’s Causeway) and many of his rivals reported the horses came out of the race in good order. Carpe Diem and runner-up Danzig Moon (Malibu Moon) punched their tickets to the Kentucky Derby (G1), while the next starts for third-place finisher Ocho Ocho Ocho (Street Sense) and fourth-place finisher Frammento (Midshipman) are to be determined. WinStar Farm and Stonestreet Stables’ Carpe Diem exited his three-length victory “great,” according to trainer Todd Pletcher. The colt will remain at Keeneland “for now,” the conditioner texted Sunday morning. Carpe Diem has 164 points toward the Kentucky Derby to put him safely in the starting gate for the race. He is third behind Louisiana Derby (G2) winner International Star (Fusaichi Pegasus) and Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner, Dortmund (Big Brown). Sarah Campion, assistant to trainer Mark Casse, said Danzig Moon came out of the race well and most likely will ship to Churchill on Monday to join the Casse string.

Danzig Moon has 45 points toward the Kentucky Derby and stands 12th on the
Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

Ocho Ocho Ocho left Keeneland early Sunday morning to return to California.
He is 19th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

“He got pretty tired yesterday, but then he had a right to since he did not
get much out of his first race of the year,” trainer Jim Cassidy said, referring
to the colt’s troubled eighth in the San Felipe (G2).

Cassidy said the Derby remains a possibility, but he wants to see how the
colt responds from the race back at Santa Anita.

“I’d like to see him bounce back like Evening Jewel did back in 2010,”
Cassidy said before leaving Lexington. “She was exhausted after she won the
Ashland (G1) and I thought there was no way she would come back in four weeks in
the Kentucky Oaks (G1). But after three days, she was climbing over the webbing,
so we came back for the Oaks.”

In the Oaks, Evening Jewel was beaten a nose by Blind Luck.

Also picking up Derby points Saturday was Frammento, who rallied to finish
fourth.

“He would have easily been second or third if he had gotten to the outside in
the stretch where he would have exploded,” trainer Nick Zito said.

Frammento has 20 points and is 28th on the Derby leaderboard.

“He is a true mile and a quarter horse,” the Hall of Famer added. “We’ll run
if we can get in. We’ll see what happens. He loves it here and we will stay here
until we know (if he gets in). It doesn’t matter when we go over there (to
Churchill) because he ran on it and trained on it last fall.”

Trainer Marya Montoya said Team Valor International’s Unrivaled (Super Saver)
was fine the morning after running seventh in his stakes debut and her Keeneland
debut.

“He ate all his dinner, came out of the race good,” she said. “He’s a little
tired.”

Montoya said Unrivaled is to leave Keeneland Monday morning and return to her
base at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. She said the colt’s future plans
are to be determined.

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