Kentucky Derby 2019 Daily: McPeek ‘gambling’ on Signalman
Welcome to Horse Racing Nation’s Kentucky Derby Daily, which will each day leading up to the May 4 race at Churchill Downs detail all the news and notes related to contenders in one convenient space.
As Keeneland odds maker Mike Battaglia read down the morning line for Saturday’s Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes, Kenny McPeek liked what he heard.
“I’ll tell you what — 8-1?” McPeek said on the price for his contender, Signalman, in the final Kentucky Derby 2019 prep. “I’m gambling.”
The son of General Quarters will make his second start off the layoff after finishing seventh when making his season debut in the Fountain of Youth (G2). There were excuses aside from time away, including a lost shoe into the first turn at Gulfstream Park.
“That didn’t help things,” McPeek said.
Neither did the Signalman’s first racetrack work of the year. He went a half mile in a blazing 46.63 seconds on Feb. 2 at Gulfstream, and the drill “jammed him up a little bit.”
“We had to back off,” McPeek said. “It kind of threw our routine off a little bit.”
Ultimately, the trainer feels he went into the Fountain of Youth with a horse “undercooked” on his conditioning, and that’s not expected to be the case when the distance lengthens 1/16 of a mile in the Blue Grass.
Lately, Signalman has breezed in company with Restless Rider, the Grade 1-winning filly from the same barn. She’s coming off a layoff of her own in Keeneland’s Ashland (G1) a race before the Blue Grass.
“I don’t know if we’re using him or her or her for him, but it’s a good position to be in,” McPeek said. “It’s difficult to find workmates for horses with that kind of talent. It’s reminiscent of when I had Take Charge Lady and Repent and they worked together regularly.
“But otherwise, they whipped their competition in the mornings. You’ve got to have something to get them ready.”
Signalman, a shrewd $32,000 yearling purchase who has gone on to earn $452,990 for his ownership group, is multiple Grade 1-placed. He ran second at Keeneland in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) last fall before finishing his 2-year-old campaign with a third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and victory in Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Jockey Club (G2).
In the win at Churchill Downs, “We asked him into the first turn,” McPeek said. “He put himself in a little better position. He is by no means a deep closer. He’s a horse that can lay mid-pack or right off speed.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll ask him that (again). How it unfolds, it’s hard to say. But from the three hole, it’s relatively easy. We’ll let him run to the first turn.”
Derby links
• For the first time in its three-year run, the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby is poised to produce a starter on the first Saturday in May.
• By My Standards put the first local work in toward the Kentucky Derby on Thursday, with Bret Calhoun saying the Louisiana Derby (G2) winner is “in a good place.” See it here.
• Free past performances are available for Saturday’s trio of major preps: the Blue Grass, Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Wood Memorial (G2).
In case you missed it…
Wednesday’s Derby Daily report highlighted Haikal, a Kiaran McLaughlin-trained full brother to Takaful who connections believe has his mind right for going two turns.