Kentucky Derby 2020 Radar: Wright maps Anneau d'Or's path

There was plenty of reason for trainer Blaine Wright to be pleased in a pair of Anneau d’Or’s defeats to end the season.

After a close-up second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the son of Medaglia d’Oro finished a runner-up again of the Dec. 7 Los Alamitos Futurity (G1), with his margins of defeat a head and neck, respectively.

Including a debut win over the Golden Gate Fields turf, “We ran him over three different surfaces, and he showed up every time,” Wright said.

Now, he added, connections are thinking up a plan “to get us over the hump” on the 2020 Kentucky Derby trail.

Wright anticipates running Anneau d’Or twice before the first Saturday in May. Locally, the El Camino Real Derby — which Wright and owner Peter Redekop won in 2019 with Anothertwistafate — runs on Feb. 15. There are also races at Santa Anita Park such as the Feb. 1 Robert B. Lewis (G3) and March 7 San Felipe Stakes (G2).

“We’re really not sure where we’ll go, although I think the ultimate goal would be the Santa Anita Derby,” Wright said. “He took to that track really well.”

After a close loss to Storm the Court in the Breeders’ Cup, Anneau d'Or wound up with a tough Los Alamitos Futurity trip, even in only a field of four. From the rail, he was boxed in much of the way as Bob Baffert-trained High Velocity set the fractions and stablemate Thousand Words flanked.

Anneau d’Or was caught behind them, taking dirt on a sloppy Saturday.

“Post positions really put us in a bad spot there,” Wright said. “Bob and his team came with a good game plan to put us right where they needed to be, and we were held at bay pretty much the whole race until we could get out. He battled.”

Under jockey Juan Hernandez, Anneau d’Or finally found room to run in the stretch and appeared poised to go by. But Flavien Prat, who rode Thousand Words, carried his mount out, and the favorite donning blinkers re-engaged once he saw competition from Anneau d’Or.

“From what I’ve been told, that colt of Bob’s is very well-regarded in his barn, and he expected him to run like that,” Wright said.

That’s fair to say, with $1 million colt Thousand Words moving to 2-for-2 with the victory.

Anneau d’Or may try some new equipment of his own in his next start. Wright said he’ll work the horse in blinkers wondering whether that’s one way to “get that extra head out him.”

Two other juveniles from the barn merit watching in these early stages of the Derby trail.

Ajourneytofreedom, by Hard Spun, broke his maiden Dec. 14 at third asking over Golden Gate’s synthetic. The stretch from six furlongs to a mile may have helped.

“We’ve always kind of thought he’s kind of the sleeper of the bunch,” Wright said. “He’s not as big and precocious of a horse as a couple of these other ones. I knew he’d be a super miler, so his race didn’t surprise me a bit.”

Connections will look for a first-level allowance that could lead to the El Camino Real Derby.

A. P. Pharoah, another Wright/Redekop charge, debuted with a fourth-place finish on Nov. 23 over Golden Gate’s turf.

“I love the way he ran,” Wright said. “He got hooked the entire way and battled. The horse that won came back and won very impressively (Friday) at Golden Gate.”

A. P. Pharoah could also merit a nomination to the El Camino Real Derby should he break his maiden at second asking. They’re off the turf for the winter at Golden Gate, so the son of American Pharoah will give synthetic a try.

Should either or both his stablemates merit running in the local Derby prep, that could send Anneau d’Or out of town for his 3-year-old debut.

“At this point, if we’ve got some jockeying around to do,” Wright said, “that would be a good thing.”