Kentucky Derby 2019 Radar: Cash is King gets Into Mischief
The true litmus test will come later for Maximus Mischief, but as Parx Racing announcer Keith Jones said on Saturday, the dominant two-time winner is “one small step closer to Louisville.”
The son of Into Mischief campaigned in partnership by Cash is King LLC — think Afleet Alex — backed up an 8 3/4-length maiden victory with a six-length allowance score in Pennsylvania, leading the entire way under jockey Frankie Pennington.
Yes, he’s on the 2019 Kentucky Derby Radar.
The field of five scratched down to three by post time, but can you blame them? Maximus Mischief was off at 1-9, led the entire way and showed a strong turn of foot when allowed to run in the stretch. He finished seven furlongs in 1:25.22.
Last year, Cash is King’s Diamond King took a parallel race pattern into Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2). That one clipped heels and tossed Pennington, but he re-appeared after a pair of stakes scores in the 2018 Preakness.
Robert “Butch” Reid conditions Maximus Mischief, whose path to his current connections was adventurous. The bay colt hammered for $165,000 as a weanling at Keeneland November but failed to meet reserve in his next two trips through the ring, both as a yearling and 2-year-old. He finally sold again for $340,000 in May once seen breezing a speedy eighth of a mile.
As far as breeding, Into Mischief, of course, is the sire on the rise whose Audible finished third in this year’s Kentucky Derby. He’s out of the 2001 Derby runner Songandaprayer mare Reina Maria.
Checking the Derby Radar boxes for Maximus Mischief:
Connections with Derby experience