Alternation pleased his connections Saturday morning with an under-control
“I was very happy with it,” said trainer Donnie Von Hemel, who watched
Clockers assigned a five-furlong time, but Von Hemel considered the entire
“There are factors on top of this work that will help us make a decision,”
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While Von Hemel and the owners decide their next move, Quinonez was happy
“the Big Horse” he has been riding this winter seems back on his game so soon
after becoming agitated by the crowd on Rebel Day and flipping in the starting
gate.
“That was a great work from him,” Quinonez said. “He finished up really nice.
I wish he can stay like this, like he is in the mornings. In the mornings he’s
great every time. That afternoon? I just don’t know what happened to him.”
In other Arkansas Derby news:
At Palm Meadows on Saturday, impressive Oaklawn maiden winner Truman’s
Commander drilled a half-mile in :47, fastest of 34 moves at the distance on the
fast track, in his first work since joining trainer Nick Zito.
After turning down several offers to sell 100 percent of the colt named for
his godfather President Harry Truman, owner Harry T. Rosenblum struck a deal to
sell majority interest to Robert LaPenta, with the provision that the colt would
return to Arkansas for the Arkansas Derby.
“I talked to Nick Zito this morning and he was pretty sure it was the bullet
workout,” said Rosenblum, a Hot Springs, Arkansas, resident. “He said he did it
very, very easily. They are pretty excited about him.”
Rosenblum, who purchased the colt for $27,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Texas
two-year-olds in training sale at Lone Star Park last April, said Truman’s
Commander has always been an eye-catching colt, but the key was getting him a
race around two-turns. He also gives the colt’s former trainer, Allen Milligan,
a lot of the credit for his development.
“Allen did an extremely good job with him,” Rosenblum said. “We thank him a
lot for what he’s done. We made him a late nominee to the Triple Crown and to
have a chance to make those races, is really exciting.”
Nehro, the surprise 36-1 runner-up in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, is
expected to join the Arkansas Derby line up.
Ridden by Michael Baze in his last two starts, the Steve Asmussen trainee
made a giant improvement when he broke his maiden by 4 1/2 lengths on February
21 at Oaklawn after two dull efforts to start his career. The bay three-year-old
then shipped to Fair Grounds to make his stakes bow in the Louisiana Derby, just
missing by a neck on the wire.
According to Baze, the leaps forward in maturity in both races have been
striking.
“The first time I rode him, he suddenly became really manageable,” Baze said
Saturday morning from Oaklawn. “I was able to just relax off them, and they all
jammed up turning for home, but he let me just take him right around them and
went right by.”
It was an ambitious jump into a $1-millon race, but even within the Louisiana
Derby, Baze said Nehro was still learning lessons en route to his neck loss to
Pants on Fire.
“He was not as bad about getting out on the first turn,” Baze explained.
“Then we get to the quarter-pole and another horse hits him in the hind end and
for a few strides he got knocked back a little bit, but he just took off after
that. I almost wish I could have taken him outside, we could have been even
closer or won it.”
Bob Baffert said The Factor galloped on Saturday and will work Monday at
Santa Anita for the Arkansas Derby.
“He’s doing good,” the Hall of Fame trainer said of the Rebel winner, who set
a six-furlong track record of 1:06 4/5 when breaking his maiden at Santa Anita
by 8 1/4 lengths on December 26.