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Perfect Drift Gets Revenge In Spiral
By John Asher
Kentucky Derby Headlines:
MIDWEST (Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Arkansas) -- Stonecrest Farm's
Perfect Drift dropped the first two rounds in his budding Kentucky
rivalry with Sam and Jeri Knighton's Request For Parole, but trainer
Murray Johnson's stable star won the third and most important round on
Saturday at Turfway Park -- with a little help from a West Coast riding
legend.
Perfect Drift, ridden for the first time by two-time Kentucky
Derby (Grade I) winner Eddie Delahoussaye, rallied to win Saturday's
$500,000 Lane's End Spiral Stakes (GII) by a neck over
California-invader Azillion, with old rival Request For Parole a nose
farther back in third. The Murray Johnson-trained winner, the first
since Kingpost (1988) to spend the winter in Kentucky, covered the 1
1/8-mile distance in 1:48.83 on a "fast" track.
Delahoussaye, who rarely strays from his California base at this
stage of his career, had been impressed enough by tapes of Perfect
Drift's races to fly to Kentucky to ride the Dynaformer gelding in the
Spiral. Known for a patient riding style, Delahoussaye made a perfectly
timed move to win the three-way battle to the finish.
"You can do anything you want with him," Delahoussaye said. "You
can let him go or take hold or put him anywhere you want -- inside or
outside -- except you can't make the lead too soon."
Perfect Drift's victory came before a crowd of 19,076, the
eighth-largest gathering in the 31-year history of Turfway Park's
signature event, and he improved his career record to 3-3-0 in six
races. He has earned $382,160. Johnson said that he and Stonecrest
owner Dr. William A. Reed would take a few days before deciding on the
next step for Perfect Drift, but Delahoussaye indicated his calendar is
open on the first Saturday in May.
"As we know, on Derby Day not always the best horse wins,"
Delahoussaye said. "I told them I wasn't
going to tell them to run. But if Perfect Drift comes out of this race
good and Murray feels like he wants to run, I'll be there."
A Kentucky Derby victory by Perfect Drift would make history as
he would be the first gelding since Clyde Van Dusen (1929) to win the
'Run for the Roses'.
This year's crop of 3-year-olds has the look of a late
developing group and one of the most impressive of the late bloomers is
Mr. Mellon, a son of Red Ransom who was a 2 1/4-length winner of the
Rushaway on the Spiral undercard at Turfway Park.
Mr. Mellon scored his second consecutive victory and convinced
trainer Elliott Walden that it is time to see what his improving colt is
made of.
"Originally I was going to run him in an allowance race at
Keeneland, but I decided to run him here," said Walden. "Now we might
run him in one of the Derby preps in the middle of April."
Mr. Mellon is named for the late philanthropist Paul Mellon, who
owned 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero and raced Red Ransom. The
colt's dam, Mackie, is named after Walden's late mother.
Mr. Mellon improved his record to 2-0-1 in four races as he
defeated Wild Horses and Derby Drive.
Team Valor's Windward Passage placed his name on the list of
late-developing contenders for Kentucky Derby 128 with a stretch-running
one-length victory over favored Ocean Sound in Oaklawn Park's Rebel
(GIII).
Jockey Donnie Meche urged the Steve Asmussen-trained son of
Captain Bodgit to the lead in the final yards before a Saturday crowd of
24,777 at the Hot Springs, Ark. track. The Rebel victory earned the
colt a start in Oaklawn's biggest race, the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby
(GII) on April 13.
"This was a big race for Windward Passage," said Team Valor
president Barry Irwin. "He's definitely going to the Arkansas Derby."
Windward Passage completed the 1 1/16-miles on a "fast" track in
1:45.06. His record now stands at
2-1-2 in six races with earnings of $106,000.
Dubai -- Dubai-based racing powerhouse Godolphin had been unsure of the
quality of its Kentucky Derby prospects, but an impressive
stretch-running victory by Essence of Dubai in Saturday's $2 million UAE
Derby (GII) at Nad Al Sheba Race Course left racing manager Simon
Crisford smiling.
The Saeed bin Suroor-trained son of Pulpit rallied from last in
the field of 14 to win by a half-length over Total Impact (Chi), a
California-based South American import who is considered to be a
4-year-old in the United States. Godolphin stablemate Ibn Al Haitham was
third.
The UAE Derby was contested for the first time at the Kentucky
Derby distance of 1 1/4-miles and Essence of Dubai covered the distance
under jockey Frankie Dettori in 2:02.90.
"Essence of Dubai has obviously emerged as our leading contender
for the Kentucky Derby right now," Crisford said. "The good thing is
that we know that a mile and a quarter is right for him."
Essence of Dubai spent most of his 2-year-old season in the care
of trainer Eoin Harty in California and won the Norfolk (GII) at Santa
Anita before he ended his campaign with a 12th-place finish in the
Breeders' Cup Juvenile (GI) at Belmont Park. He improved his record to
4-0-1 in six races and has earned $1.54 million.
Godolphin has had at least one entrant in the last three
renewals of the Kentucky Derby, but its best finish was a sixth-place
run by China Visit in 2000.
EAST (New York, Maryland) --Koji Maeda's Sunday Break, an impressive
allowance winner for trainer Neil Drysdale in his most recent race at
Santa Anita, is scheduled to run on Wednesday at Aqueduct in a 1
1/8-mile allowance race for 3-year-olds.
The race, appropriately enough, is named in honor of Fusaichi
Pegasus, who won the Wood Memorial (GI) and Kentucky Derby for Drysdale
in 2000. Sunday Break, a son of Forty Niner who was bred in Japan,
prepped for Wednesday's race with a five furlong work on Saturday at the
New York track.
"He needs another race before he moves up to group competition,"
Drysdale said. "If he runs well, we'll run him back in the Wood (on
April 13)."
Regular jockey Gary Stevens will ride Sunday Break in
Wednesday's race.
SOUTHEAST (Florida) -- Pin Oak Stable's Equality, winner of the Tampa
Bay Derby (GIII), will make his next start on the Kentucky Derby trail
in the $250,000 Aventura Stakes at 1 1/16-miles at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Graham Motion said he would have preferred to see the
Aventura at 1 1/8-miles, but sees other benefits in the race for his
Kentucky Derby prospect.
"Everyone's ultimate goal at this time is the Kentucky Derby,"
Motion said. "Equality likes this track and it means not having to ship
him by running in the Aventura."
Kentucky Oaks Update -- Michael Tabor's Bella Bellucci, third in the
Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI), rallied in deep stretch on Sunday
to win the 6 1/2-furlong Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita.
Mike Smith rode the Neil Drysdale-trained filly in her first
race since the Breeders' Cup.
3rd Turn Stable's Colonial Glitter notched the first stakes win
of her career in a 10 1/2-length romp in Saturday's $150,000
Bourbonette Breeders' Cup at Turfway Park. Take The Cake was a late
scratch.
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