Blue Grass: Talkin needs 'a huge second' to be Ky. Derby-bound

Trainer Danny Gargan is expecting Talkin to be heard from in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass at Keeneland.

“He’s doing really good and he came out of the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) better than he went into it,” Gargan said Thursday morning. “I never considered the Wood Memorial (G2). This is the race I wanted to run in with the one prep at Tampa to get him fit.”

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Talkin is owned by the partnership of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Pine Racing Stables, Legendary Thoroughbreds, Belmar Racing and Breeding and R. A. Hill Stable. He will try to give Gargan an initial victory in the Blue Grass.

Two years ago, Gargan came to the Blue Grass with Dornoch, who finished fourth for a partnership group that included Pine Racing, Belmar and Hill. Off that effort, Dornoch finished 10th after breaking from the 1 hole in the Kentucky Derby before winning the Belmont and Haskell (G1).

To get back to the Kentucky Derby, Talkin will have to finish in the top two. Talkin has accumulated 10 qualifying points toward the Derby by virtue of a runner-up finish in the Champagne (G1) and the fifth in the Tampa Bay Derby.

Joel Rosario has the mount from post 1.

“He would have to run a huge second to get to the Derby,” Gargan said of the Blue Grass, which awards 100 points to the winner and 50 points to the runner-up for the run for the roses.

Four races before Talkin ventures to center stage, Gargan will send out National Identity in the $350,000 Commonwealth (G3) for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing.

The Commonwealth will be the graded-stakes debut for National Identity and his second start outside of New York-bred company.

“He is just as good as any of them,” Gargan said of National Identity, who has a 10: 5-3-2 record. “I am not afraid of any of them in there and the New York-breds … Will Walden won a Grade 1 here with Rhetorical and I won the Frizette (G1) with Iron Orchard.”

Rosario has the mount on National Identity.