Zipse’s Kentucky Derby Daily – Day 62
The family
vacation slash, first ever visit to Tampa Bay Downs has begun. The long drive
from Suburban Chicago to the Sunshine State went off without a hitch, and the
family, including myself is full of smiles after leaving the five month winter
of home to arrive to some beautiful 80 degree weather. I know, all of you still
stuck in the North still are feeling truly happy for me. Most of our drive was
yesterday (Gotham Day), and I found one exchange between my wife Candie and I,
especially interesting. After a long stretch in the car, I told her I was
thirsty. She offered up some of her bottled water, but after several hours out
in the car, the water was on the warm side. I informed her that I do not do
warm water. She replied with an answer that I clearly deserved … “Fine, stay
thirsty.” Bazinga!
Not long
after checking into our hotel in Georgia last night, I was on the laptop
viewing a replay of the Gotham. I was not surprised with what I saw. Despite getting
off a little slow and racing wide throughout, Stay Thirsty had more than enough
in the stretch to pull away impressively from Norman Asbjornson to win by 3 ¼ lengths
in decent time of 1:44.78 for the 1 1/16 miles at Aqueduct. Ridden by Ramon
Dominguez, Stay Thirsty had to survive a claim of foul from the second place
finisher, as he did drift briefly into his path, but the decision to leave the
result as it finished, was a good one. Owned by Mike Repole and trained by Todd
Pletcher, the Gotham win was the first start of the year for the son of
Bernardini who had finished second in last summer’s Hopeful Stakes.
The win
sets the good lucking colt up nicely for a run to the Kentucky Derby, but he
will need to leave town before his next prep. Normally an impressive winner of
the Gotham would move on to the Wood Memorial for his next engagement, but not
this year. Not coming from the barn that he is coming from. Repole and Pletcher
have Mo, and there is no way they are going to run Stay Thirsty against their
real superstar, Uncle Mo, until they have to on the First Saturday in May.
[Uncle Mo is #1, Stay Thirsty is #21 on the HRN list of 2011 Kentucky Derby Contenders ... what do you think?]
Since his
previous race last November, Stay Thirsty spent the winter working at the Palm
Meadows Training Center in Florida. Most of that work was completed in company
with his more highly regarded stablemate. Reports from the training track all
spoke of Stay Thirsty sticking with Uncle Mo, but the connections, including
Repole, did not hide the fact that one of the two was doing it a little easier.
And the colt who found the tandem working less taxing is not named Stay
Thirsty.
It appears
the Gotham thus taught us two things. First, Stay Thirsty is a legitimate
Kentucky Derby threat. He figures to appreciate a distance, and should only get
better with more racing. Anyone leaving him off of their list of top ten Derby
prospects is probably making a mistake. Second, and possibly more importantly,
we learned that expecting Uncle Mo to regress from his fantastic juvenile form
is looking more and more like a fool’s folly. If Uncle Mo was simply toying
with Stay Thirsty down in Florida, imagine what the rest of the sophomore
division is in store for when Uncle Mo kicks off his second season six days
from today. Good luck to them.
Photo Courtesy of Adam Coglianese/NYRA