Barn Tour: Rivelli keeps his cool with 1st Ky. Derby contender

As a third-generation trainer, Larry Rivelli knows better than to get too worked up about having his first Kentucky Derby contender in Two Phil's.

“We're very happy,” he told Horse Racing Nation on Tuesday. “We're very proud to hopefully make it there. I'm trying not to get too excited because I know how stuff happens in this game. One day chicken, next day feathers, so we're just hoping everything goes good.

“When we get there and we're loading in the gate, that'll probably be the highest my heart rate's been in a while, since I scored a touchdown in college playing football.”

Two Phil’s, meanwhile, seems to be taking it in stride after clinching his spot at Churchill Downs with a win in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3).

“He's very, very mature, a very smart horse,” Rivelli said. “Never, knock on wood, gets out of whack, turns a hair. He's a funny horse. He eats everything. And when he's not eating, then you'll know something's wrong. He's never not eaten. He sleeps from 10:30 to 11:30 every day in the morning, no matter what. You could have a full-blown, you know, horses going out, coming in, blacksmiths banging shoes, doing stuff. He just lays down from 10:30 to 11 every day. It's the coolest thing. I love that in a horse, I really do. They take the load off and they just lay down. I love it. … And me, I can't sleep at all.”

And he’s confident that Two Phil’s belongs in the prestigious race.

“He's been a real straightforward horse for us. He continued to get better as the races got a little bit longer, and he didn't regress. His last race, obviously he ran 101 Beyer at Turfway. So he's peaking at the right time, I think. But there's no way to really tell if it was the affinity for the synthetic track versus the dirt. But doing this as long as I have, and I've ran on every surface in the country, I'd have to honestly say that probably played a part in it. But he's also moving forward and doing good. So I just think he's a pretty nice horse and just getting better and better as the races come along. And he hasn't had any setbacks, which is half the battle at this stage of the game, keeping them healthy.”

For now, though, the Hard Spun colt is “doing great, came out of his last race great. Went into it really good, too. So just trying to, for a couple more weeks here, keep him out of harm's way and not get too silly and do anything different than we've normally been doing. And cross our fingers that it rains and get him there healthy.”

Two Phil’s 5 1/4-length win in the Street Sense (G3) in October came on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs.

Rivelli and Two Phil’s were at Hawthorne on Tuesday, the trainer’s base since Arlington Park closed in 2021.

“I miss that place,” said Rivelli, who won the trainer’s title there the last four years. "I drive by it every day and cry.”

Rivelli discussed some of his other top talent for HRN’s Barn Tour series.

Back to Ohio. This 3-year-old daughter of Midshipman is 5-for-5, with four of those wins coming in stakes. She last raced in October. “She's a pretty cool filly,” Rivelli said. “She's an Ohio-bred, and we had to outbid some major players to get her and we did and she hasn't let us down. After her last race, there really wasn't any more races for Ohio-breds. So we gave her time off, turned her out, brought her back. And now she's back training. And she's got a couple breezes under a belt. And she's probably about 45 to 60 days away from running. But real nice, real fast. I mean, being an Ohio-bred, she's got them over a barrel over there, I think, at least for now, as long as she stays healthy. And those races are 100, 150,000 (dollars). So we're just going to pick our spots and hopefully we can keep her undefeated. If we have to run her in an open stake, she did win her open stake last year at Presque Isle, which was good. So we know she can handle that type of competition. And hopefully, she just moves forward. And if she moves forward, she'll be really good. I mean, really, really good. If she stays the same, she'll still probably be tough to beat in those certain situations.”

One Timer. A 4-year-old gelding by Trappe Shot, he won the Franklin-Simpson (G2) last out at Kentucky Downs in September and is 5-for-8 for his career. “He's on the same schedule as Back to Ohio. When he won his last race, that was our projection to try to win that race back at Kentucky Downs. So we'll have probably one or two preps at Churchill before we run at Kentucky Downs in that million-dollar race,” the Turf Sprint.

Nobals. The 4-year-old gelding won four in a row last year, including three stakes, but got a rest after two losses. He returned in March and finished second to the favorite in an optional-claiming allowance at Turfway, and Rivelli expects him to return to stakes company. “I'm looking for a race for him at Keeneland and then Churchill and then probably Woodbine and Presque Isle because he's got an affinity for the Polytrack.”

Bizzee Channel. The 7-year-old gelding was 2-for-10 last year, with both wins coming under Rivelli’s care. “We lost him in a claiming race and claimed him back at the Fair Grounds, and I turned him out, I gave him some time off. He hadn't been running very good for the old connections that he had. And so we planed him back and gave him some time off. We're going bring him back. He'll probably show up at Kentucky Downs as well. … Probably not stake races, but higher-price claiming races or something like that.”

Rivelli also is looking forward to his 2-year-olds coming along. “We got a bunch of babies this year, 2-year-olds, real good ones, but we don't really know who's who at the zoo yet. So still just kind of putting it all together.”