Brisset has first stakes winner, Quip, Kentucky Derby-bound
OLDSMAR, Fla. -- Not even a year after going out on his own, trainer Rodolphe Brisset already has a horse on the 2018 Kentucky Derby trail.
The 34-year-old Frenchman saddled Quip for Satirday's Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby and in doing so scored a 19-1 upset. Although it was the biggest win of his career as a trainer, Brisset credited his time as an assistant to Hall of Famer Bill Mott for preparing him.
Brisset worked with the likes of Royal Delta, Drosselmeyer, Tourist and To Honor and Serve -- among other big names -- from 2007 until he went out on his own in April of last year. His start has been nothing less than ambitious, with 10 winners from 94 starters. Brisset's horses are hitting the board at a 34 percent clip, according to stats provided by Equibase.
When asked about what he learned from Mott, Brisset said, “You won’t have enough time to talk about that, but I think the main thing is (he made) me become maybe a good guy first before the job and then I learned everything in the barn.”
It's working.
Quip, who's is owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club International Ltd. and SF Racing, boasts lofty connections, especially for a trainer's first stakes win.
“He’s a very cool horse," Brisset said of the Distorted Humor colt, who's a WinStar homebred. "He’s got his quirks. Some couple things you have to be a little careful. The rest is pretty forward and he’s a smart horse."
The bay colt was a debut winner at Churchill Downs in September and scored in a Keeneland allowance the following month. But a seventh-place run in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last November, plus a lengthy layoff to follow, left bettors making Quip the sixth choice in the Tampa Bay Derby.
“We always thought a lot about him," Geroux said. "We were a little bit disappointed in the Kentucky Jockey Club. Just the race didn’t unfold the way I thought it would. The winner of the Fountain of Youth, Promises Fulfilled, was kind of getting out in the race … One time he was out, one time he was in, so I was pulling my horse, hit the break a few times and sometimes with young horses it’s not ideal.”
Quip had a short rest following the November race and reappeared on the work tab at Fair Grounds the first week of January. Nearly two weeks out from the Tampa Bay Derby, Geroux and Quip put in a bullet five-furlong work in :59.80. Quip also got experience over the Tampa Bay Downs track drilling four furlongs in :48 flat five days out from his race return.
“We’ve been putting a lot of work into him,” Brisset said. As a former jockey, he is often aboard Quip for morning workouts. “Last year we got a pretty good bottom into him too. We got three races. He trained from May to November, so it’s a layoff, but I guess the teaching part is to really come back quick, so it was no real worry and he came around pretty quick.”
Pasco Stakes winner World of Trouble shot to the lead in Saturday’s race, with Quip and Geroux stalking in second. The eventual winner put away the pacesetter down the stretch and held off late-running Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Flameaway by one length.
“It was his first race since November, so I think the horse really improved from this race,” Geroux said. “He had a nice win over Keeneland. The trainer and the owner will tell us if he needs a prep before Derby, but the horse is pretty much in with the win of today.”
Brisset is still working out plans going forward, but the joy of the moment was evident with smiles on all connections, a few tears of joy in the winner's circle and plenty of pets for Quip.
“I’m not going to be the only one thinking of that,” Brisset said of the next race. “The ownership has a couple of horses on the Derby trail. To be honest, let’s enjoy this one and then we see how we come back and we regroup.”