11.04.2000	Photo By: Jeremy Lyverse
		Irish-based trainer Aidan O'Brien, who broke a 14-year-old world record for Group or Grade One wins in a season with 23 in 2001, will keep Johannesburg in Ireland for his Kentucky Derby (GI) preparations. The colt will likely have one prep race in April prior to shipping to Kentucky in the spring.

Eclipse Winner Johannesburg Bound For Kentucky Derby

Michael Tabor and Mrs. John Magnier's Johannesburg, whose three-year-old campaign has been shrouded in mystery since he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (GI) at Belmont Park last fall, will run in the 128th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 4, 2002, according to the colt's co-owner, Michael Tabor.

"The idea was always to go to Kentucky," Tabor told the New York Daily News, after accepting Johannesburg's 2001 Eclipse Award for top 2-year-old colt on Feb. 18. "We haven't changed our plan. He will probably have his prep race in Ireland in April (Gladness Stakes at the Curragh on April 6), and then he'll go straight to Kentucky. No prep race in America, which may not be a good idea. I'm sure we'll get castigated if it doesn't work out. If it does work out, we're very bright."

A son of Hennessy out of the Ogygian mare Myth, Johannesburg is undefeated from seven lifetime starts, having won three Group One stakes in England, France and Ireland as a two-year-old for trainer Aidan O'Brien in addition to defeating America's best juvenile talent in his first dirt start in the 2001 Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (GI) at Belmont Park on Oct. 27. Not only will Johannesburg try to defy the jinx that has been cast over prior Breeders' Cup Juvenile winners (none of them have ever won the Kentucky Derby), but the colt will also try to become the first European-based horse to win the Derby as well as the first runner since Bold Venture in 1936 to win the Derby off a single prep race. Should Johannesburg win his lone Irish prep for the Derby in April, he will try to become the first Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew to keep his undefeated record intact in the "Run for the Roses".

Johannesburg has been training in Ireland under the care of O'Brien, who legs his charges up at the famed Ballydole yard in Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, a high-tech facility that was the former home of Irish training legend Vincent O'Brien (no relation to Aidan) who, incidentally, is the father of Ms. Susan Magnier, co-owner of Johannesburg.

"I won this (Kentucky Derby) in 1995 (with U.S.-based Thunder Gulch)," Tabor said. "And when you've experienced that type of high, you want it again."

Tabor also owns Derby hopeful Mayakovsky, who is in training in California with Patrick Biancone. That colt may be heading for the March 17 Gotham Stakes (GIII) at Aqueduct.

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