On the Derby Trail: Morning Works (4/26)

Likely Kentucky Derby favorite Lookin At Lucky breezed five furlongs in a muddy Churchill Downs track in 1:00.80, the fastest work of twenty-five at the distance.  Other Derby horses to work this morning were: Line of David (1:15 for 6f), Interactif (47.60 for 4f - 1/45), Noble's Promise (48.80 for 4f, 7/45), and American Lion (1:02.60 for 6f, 11/25).  

HRTV ran the video for each work on today's Pursuit of the Crown, here are my thoughts on each:

Lookin At Lucky: Bob Baffert usually works his horses fast, something to be aware of when looking at raw clockings from the morning, but this colt put in a bullet work with nary an urging from the exercise rider.  It was simply a fantastic work, in my opinion.  Very quick, but also effortless.

Line of David: I absolutely hated his work this morning for the simple fact that the exercise rider had to urge him along in the stretch and even went so far as to give him a light tap with the stick.  A speed horse that has to be shown the stick in a 6f work prior to the Derby?  Not good at all.  I suppose Line of David could have hated the muddy track but there's no way to call this a good work.  If the Derby comes up muddy, run away from this horse.

Noble's Promise: Worked in company for a half mile and looked very nice rolling through the stretch.  HRTV's Lafit Pincay, Jr. repeated my thoughts about this horse: if you like Lookin At Lucky, don't you kinda gotta like Noble's Promise?  A good work and he looks to be coming into the Derby in excellent shape.

American Lion: The time wasn't great for his work but this colt was moving easily and effortlessly the whole way through the stretch. I don't know if he'll have the speed to keep up with the early pace in the Derby, but his final work looked good.

Interactif:  If you only saw the final time from Interactif's morning work you'd think this colt put up a huge move.  When you see the video, it's clear this colt has some issues.  

Interactif worked in company this morning and as the tandem came off the turn, the exercise rider went to the stick three times to get him going, and even then he didn't blow by his work mate.  Bad, bad work.  I was on the fence with Interactif this week but after this work he's a long, long shot to win on my odds line.   HRTV's Jeff Siegel suggested that Interactif might not even go in the Derby and based on this work, that would be the right call.