The road to the Kentucky Derby is always fraught with heartache, and nobody knows that better than Todd Pletcher, whose top colt, Violence, was knocked off the Triple Crown trail yesterday with a fractured right front sesamoid suffered when he finished second in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The colt is “resting comfortably” at Gulfstream and will be sent to his owner’s farm in Kentucky for evaluation. His racing career is almost certainly over.
Unbeaten in three starts as a 2-year-old, including the Nashua and Cashcall Futurity, Violence was ranked at or near the top of every Derby poll this winter. Favored at 3-5 Saturday in a field of nine going 1 1/16 miles, the son of Medaglia d’Oro stalked loose-on-the-lead sprinter Majestic Hussar to the far turn, at which point the clock in Javier Castellano’s head must have busted a spring, because he gunned Violence after King Hussar through six furlongs in 1:08.85.
Violence sailed past to take command at the top of the stretch but soon shortened stride, no surprise given the blazing pace. Orb, 5-1 in his stakes debut for Shug McGaughey, collared Violence inside the final furlong after a wide, sweeping rally around the far turn under John Velazquez; and although Violence battled back, Orb prevailed by a half length. It was another 6 3/4 lengths back to Speak Logistics in third.
Pletcher seemed satisfied.
“Violence was able to dig in pretty well in the stretch,” he said. “We just came out on the short end. Overall, it was a good effort.”
But of course, that was before the injury surfaced. Pletcher has just one win from 31 Derby starters, but that record could be a lot better if he hadn’t lost so many good ones on the way there.
Just last year his colt Algorithms, 3-for-3 including a five-length romp in the Holy Bull, was scratched the morning of the Fountain of Youth and never raced again. Pletcher’s other colt in that race, Discreet Dancer, finished third as the 4-5 favorite and was out for the rest of the year.
Two years ago, Pletcher scratched Uncle Mo from the Derby the morning before the big race when the 2-year-old champ was stricken by a rare case of cholangiohepatitis. Three years ago, Pletcher’s Eskendereya, who many felt was a likely Triple Crown winner off his 9 3/4-length runaway in the Wood Memorial, was retired six days before the Derby with a bowed tendon.
As Violence exits stage left, the spotlight falls on a potential new star. Orb, who rallied from far back to finish third behind Violence in his debut at Saratoga, has won three races in a row, two of them going two turns.
The 50 points he earned for winning the Fountain of Youth should be sufficient to qualify for the 20-horse Derby field under Churchill Downs’ new system, and he’s got another prep to go.
The son of Malibu Moon has the right running style. Orb’s pedigree — he is a grandson of A.P. Indy and great-grandson of Seattle Slew, out of an Unbridled mare from the female family of Ruffian — is outstanding. And we’ve been rooting for Hall-of-Famer McGaughey to make it back to the Derby with a top-notch contender ever since Easy Goer.
* Whereas the Fountain of Youth was a two-horse race, Saturday’s other Derby prep, the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star at the Fair Grounds, saw the first five finishers separated by just 1 1/2 lengths at the wire.
The winner, by a nose at 135-1, was the aptly named Ive Struck a Nerve. Fourth last out in the Lecomte, beaten 13 lengths, the Keith Desormeaux-trained son of Yankee Gentleman might never be heard from again, but the 50 points he earned for winning the Risen Star punched his ticket to Louisville.
Code West, shipping in from California for Bob Baffert, was second, a half-length in front of Pletcher’s Palace Malice, who had a nose on D. Wayne Lukas’ Oxbow, winner of the Lecomte by 11 1/2 lengths.
Normandy Invasion, the 3-2 favorite in the field of 12 making his first start for Chad Brown since he was beaten a nose in the Nov. 24 Remsen, finished a tough-trip fifth. The son of Tapit trailed after breaking slowly under Jose Lezcano, was wide around the clubhouse turn, wide down the backside, and widest of all circling the field around the far turn. He didn’t find his best stride until inside the final furlong, then finished with good energy to lose by 1 1/2 lengths and galloped out in front.
Since Normandy Invasion did not earn any points for the Risen Star, he will have to run 1-2 in his final prep to make the Derby.