Metaboss flies into the Kentucky Derby picture
With all the pre-race talk going into the corner of the Mark Casse trained Conquest Typhoon, local trainer Jeff Bonde didn’t mind at all that his entrant into the Grade III $200,000 El Camino Real Derby, Metaboss, was flying under the radar.
That’s because in the Bonde camp, they knew what they had, and that he was ready to go.
Metaboss, ridden perfectly by hall of famer Alex Solis, proved to be too much for the field to handle Saturday, as he roared down the lane and pulled away much the best for a 2 ½ length win in the Northern California prep to the 2015 Kentucky Derby.
“It’s been a long time coming,” a jubilant Bonde said when asked about winning his first El Camino Real Derby. “In his prior race he hooked a horse called Bolo, which is one of the prettiest horses I had seen the entire year. My horse ran kind of green that day but we were a heck of a lot closer to Bolo than some other horses that came back and won some nice stuff. This horse is a May foal and he’s improving and we had a chance to step forward. That was our inspiration.”
Solis found himself mid-pack early on, in a race that was void of early speed. The slowish fractions of 24.2 and 49.2 set by surprise leaders Indianaughty (Corey Lanerie), and the favored Conquest Typhoon (Mike Smith), prompted a handful of riders, including Smith, to send up to the front earlier than they had wanted to. In Smith’s case he thinks it cost Typhoon second place as he was run down by California Derby winner Cross the Line for second, just before the wire.
“On paper there wasn’t much pace and my horse was a little fresh and he jumped very well actually, and it came so easy to him I decided to try and play the steal card and see if I could just win it from a lot closer than I wanted to be,” Smith said. “With a good race under our belt we would have been a for sure second and that’s not a bad thing against this winner, because he’s ok.”
Solis, who had previously won this race twice back in 1986 and 1989, knew all he had to do was be patient.
“We broke sharp, got a good position and just wanted to be patient,” Solis said. “When we got to the 4 ½ mark, I saw a few of the horses moving a little early and I was happy to see that. At the 5/16th I got him out in the clear and hit him a few times at the 3/16th and he came home strong. I knew he would give me a good turn a foot and he did his thing.”
Bonde knew he had a horse on his hands early on in the horses career.
“When he broke his maiden at 1 1/8 mile on the turf, he came home the last eighth in under :12 and he impressed me,” Bonde said. “ I knew he could get the distance and I felt the Tapeta surface was his strong point. But he is versatile. He has won on turf and Tapeta. He lost on the hard dirt at Santa Anita but that was going short and ever since he has went the extended distances, he has become a new horse.”
The winning time of 1:49.92 was 0.38 off the track record and the fastest running of the race since it went to 1 1/8th back in 2009. Owned by a Homeless Handicapper partnership, Metaboss provided his backers with a win payout of $15.20.