Todd Pletcher
A native of Dallas, TX, Pletcher grew up around Thoroughbred racing as his father, Jake Pletcher, trained Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. After graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in animal science, he went to work for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. He stayed with Lukas for six years, eventually becoming his main East Coast assistant trainer. He went out on his own in 1996 and has trained such top-class performers as Left Bank and Balto Star. While he has been very successful since taking out his license, 2004 was a banner year for the Pletcher stable. His starters earned $17,511,923, top in the nation by nearly $2 million, he finished fifth in terms of number of victories, and as a result was awarded the 2004 Eclipse Award for top trainer. After going winless with his first 12 Breeders' Cup starters, Pletcher won two races in the event last year: the Sprint with Speightstown, and the Distaff with Kentucky Oaks champ Ashado. Both would also go on to be Eclipse winners in their respective divisions. Pletcher’s best Derby finish was with Invisible Ink, second in 2001, and most recently a fourth place finish with Limehouse last year.
Jorge Chavez
Jorge Chavez, a native of Peru, is annually one of the top riders in the U.S. in terms of wins and purses earned and is also among the elite cadre of riders based on the East Coast. He is perennially one of the leading riders on the highly competitive New York circuit and in 1999 he won the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding jockey. He was the leading rider for six consecutive years (from 1994-1999) in New York and is a recipient of the Mike Venezia Award. He won his first Kentucky Derby (GI) in 2001 aboard Monarchos and has ridden the major stakes winners Beautiful Pleasure, Behrens and Albert the Great.
Melnyk Racing Stables Inc.
Eugene Melnyk's pharmaceutical company Biovail makes time-release versions of blockbuster drugs like Wellbutrin and Zyban. Melnyk grew up in the east-end of Toronto and made frequent trips to Greenwood racetrack as a teenager. Horse racing is his true passion, and Melnyk boasts some 280 thoroughbreds, many kept on a 1,000-acre farm near Ocala, Fla. Like prizewinning Archers Bay, many of the horses are named after hot spots in Barbados, where Melnyk lives much of the year. Melnyk, who also owns the Ottawa Senators professional hockey team, and his wife Laura have consistently been among the leading owners in Canada by purse money won.
George Brunacini (KY)
Brunacini, a native of Albuquerque, is the owner of successful home appliance and construction businesses. He also currently has a farm, named Bona Terra, in Georgetown, Kentucky, where he has approximately 40 broodmares. He began breeding horses about 20 years ago, and has become involved in racing in the past few years, with most of his stock under the care of trainer Emilie Fojan, though he also is heavily involved in the day to day maintenance of his racing stable.
05.06.05 - Spanish Chestnut Due In Saturday Morning 05.01.05 - Sunday Barn Notes 04.30.05 - Saturday Barn Notes 04.29.05 - Friday Barn Notes 04.28.05 - Thursday Barn Notes 04.16.05 - Afleet Alex Bounces Back In A Big Way
03.26.05 - Flower Alley's Brilliant Display In Lane's End
Had an eventful trip, yet won with something in reserve
2.19.05
Maiden allowance @ Gulfstream
1st
Led, dropped back, came on for the win
12.18.04
Maiden allowance @ Calder
3rd
Middle move, faded in the stretch
Recent Workouts
Date
Track
Distance
Time
Rank
4.10
Keeneland (fast)
6 furlongs
1:16.40 H
1/4
Melnyk Racing Stable's rapidly improving colt burst onto the Derby scene with a win in the Lane's End (Grade III) at Turfway Park and then ran a distant second to Derby 131 rival Afleet Alex in the Arkansas Derby (GII). The Kentucky-bred colt is one of three Derby 131 contenders trained by Todd Pletcher, last year's Eclipse Award winner as America's outstanding trainer, and will be ridden in the Derby by Jorge Chavez, who guided Monarchos to a late-running Derby victory in 2001.
Flower Alley has raced only four times, but has compiled a steady record of 2-1-1 and earnings of $521,660. He will be racing with new equipment in the Derby as Pletcher will outfit the colt in blinkers for the first time.
Flower Alley is by 2002’s leading freshman sire Distorted Humor, a son of Forty Niner and a descendant of the Raise A native sire line who solidified his status as a sire when his son Funny Cide won the 2003 Kentucky Derby and was voted champion colt the same year. Distorted Humor won the Grade II Commonwealth Breeders' Cup and is the sire of four crops and 23 black type winners to date, including Grade I Spinaway winner Awesome Humor, Grade II Astarita winner Humorous Lady and the listed stakes winner Crackup. Distorted Humor, like other recent Derby winners' sires, was at his best racing around the one mile distance, but his offspring have proven to be able to go a distance of ground, as witnessed by Funny Cide.
Princess Olivia, dam of Flower Alley, raced 24 times, winning three, all at age two. Flower Alley is one of four foals for his dam, and just he and one other have started, the other winning three races to date. Flower Alley's second and third generation on his tail female side is scattered with minor European and American stakes winners, but his fourth dam, Dumfries, family jumps out from the catalog page. From this line comes the millionaire filly Urbane, who won graded stakes at ten furlongs, group one winner Nobiliary, multiple graded winners Another Review, No Review, and Dance Colony, and Lyphard, three-time leading sire in Europe and the United States as well as leading broodmare sire twice in France.
An interesting aspect of Flower Alley's pedigree is the presence of both Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer. While not uncommon in today's Thoroughbred, both sires are in the same position, respectively, on either side of the pedigree. Mr. Prospector is the third generation tail-male sire, while Northern Dancer appears in the fourth generation on the dam side of both Distorted Humor and Princess Olivia.
Dosage Index: 1.73
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