Carpe Diem beats rain in final Derby work

Carpe Diem was out before dawn finishing up his Kentucky Derby preparation (Keeneland/Coady Photography) At 5:30 a.m. (EDT) Saturday at Keeneland, Carpe Diem (Giant’s Causeway) and jockey John Velazquez worked a half-mile in :48 3/5 in the colt’s final move before the $2 million Kentucky Derby (G1) next Saturday. Clockers caught Carpe Diem in fractions of :13, :25, :48 3/5 with gallop out times of 1:01 1/5, 1:14 4/5 and 1:29 2/5. “I thought he worked super,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He seemed to get over the ground really well. We got fortunate with the weather; looks like most of the rain kind of went south of here. Perfect track. The track was in excellent condition. He seemed to handle it really well, finished up strongly, galloped out good.” Velazquez, who will ride Carpe Diem in the Kentucky Derby, also was pleased with the performance. “We took it little by little in the first part of the work and then finished up really good,” he said. Since winning the April 4 Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland, Carpe Diem has remained there while Pletcher’s other hopefuls for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks (G1) have relocated to Churchill. Carpe Diem worked four furlongs in :48 last Saturday.

“He really loves the surface here,” Pletcher said. “We were a little
concerned with how the weather was going to play out. Today was the day we
wanted to breeze him. We had a lot more confidence in the surface being good
here at Keeneland. This surface has impressed us quite a bit — the way it
handles moisture, rain.”

Pletcher, who has been traveling between Keeneland and Churchill to oversee
his horses, said Carpe Diem has been thriving since the Blue Grass.

“He’s continued to develop,” Pletcher said. “He’s really in a good place now.
He’s just very happy with himself, content, galloping well; his appetite’s good.
Just all the indications you’d like to see leading up to a big race. He’s giving
us all the right signs.”

Carpe Diem, who has won four races in five starts and has earned $1,519,800,
is the third-leading point earner among horses taking aim at the Kentucky Derby.
Pletcher, who won the 2010 Kentucky Derby with Super Saver, said Carpe Diem
likely would ship to Churchill on Monday.

Pletcher made the 75-mile trip from Lexington to
Louisville — logging some phone calls and getting in some ESPN radio along the
way — in time to see his three other Derby colts go through a jog during the
8:30 to 8:45 special training window Churchill has put in place for Derby and
Kentucky Oaks horses.

The trio — Itsaknockout (Lemon Drop Kid), Materiality (Afleet Alex) and Stanford
(Malibu Moon) — had each worked the day prior, so they merely
jogged a mile, backtracking all the way around the big Churchill oval.
Itsaknockout had Ezequiel Perez in the tack, Materiality was handled by Carlos
Cano and Stanford went for Isabelle Bourez.

Of the three, Florida Derby (G1) winner Materiality came
off the track “on the muscle,” as racetrackers say of a horse who is full of
himself and showing it.

“He’s normally a quiet colt, but sometimes he’ll
tip you that he’s feeling good,” Pletcher said. “He’s telling us that he came
out of that work yesterday very well.”

The lightly raced colt will be making
only the fourth start of his career next Saturday and he’ll have Javier
Castellano aboard for the first time.

Itsaknockout will have the
Derby services of Luis Saez, while Stanford has not had a rider named to this point, though Florent Geroux rode
him in his most recent start — a second-place finish in the Louisiana Derby
(G2) — and may have the inside track on the mount next week.

Pletcher indicated that he’d wait to see what the
track was like tomorrow morning before making his next move with his three
colts. If the heavy rains that are predicted come and the track is on the “off,”
he indicated that the trio might just walk the shedrow. But if the main surface
is in good shape, they could return to galloping.

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