Charge It has only 2 races but 'hasn't missed a bobble'

Heading into the the Grade 1 Florida Derby on Saturday. Charge It has only two races. But that doesn't concern Todd Quast, general manager and racing manager for owner Whisper Hill Farm.

It all starts with the breeding, Quast told Horse Racing Nation Monday. He's a homebred by Tapit out of the Indian Charlie mare I'll Take Charge. "A beautiful mare. I mean, really good looking. She was with Bill Mott. and did OK, was nice, but Charge It looks like he's at another level above that."

Quast said Charge It "looked good young, he looked great as a yearling. We always choose a few that we don't offer for sale, and he was never offered for sale."

Tapit's progeny can be "pretty hot," Quast said, but that's not the case with Charge It. "He's got a really, really good mind."

And then there's the trainer, Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.

"Todd's done a great job, brought him right along and – knock on wood – so far, he pretty much hasn't missed a bobble."

Whisper Hill, run by Mandy Pope, often doesn't start horses as juveniles, but Quast said they are starting to do that more than in the past.

But Charge It "had a little hiccup early on. And then he actually had something go on where he got something in his eye. And those are the things that held us back. We weren't going to get him out early early, but he could have got out a little earlier. But we let him tell us, and it just wasn't right."

His first race was a maiden special weight at Gulfstream, where he finished second to Volcanic by a neck in a quick-paced race.

He came back in another maiden race on Feb. 12 and led gate to wire to win by 8 1/2 lengths.

"I think he got more out of that race than the second one, really," Quast said. "The first one, we started him at a mile, which is hard to do, going a lot of ground."

Also, he noted, Volcanic already had the experience of three starts, and his connections "thought enough of him to run him as a maiden in the Hopeful" (G1), where he finished seventh.

Volcanic "comes and puts pressure on us, and I was proud of Charge It. He dug in and got inched out at the wire but really showed experience beyond his years and beyond his racing. After that race, he came back and just even brought some more."

And now it's on to the Florida Derby, with 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points on offer.

"We kind of took dead aim on the Florida Derby, thinking the timing was the best for his career – not just on the Derby trail, for him having a good 3-year-old year," Quast said. "And that race in itself is a stallion maker. If he can run well and win that race, even in his third race, it just would be a remarkable feat."

But Quast knows it won't be easy.

"I think the two things that are going to worry me more than anything else are things that we haven't done, which is two turns. I don't think two turns is a problem, but he's still got to do it. And then he's been pretty lucky not to have any trouble, or to be behind horses, eat dirt, anything like that. If any of those things go on, those are things that he hasn't experienced yet. I think he will handle it very well, but you never know til you do it."

And if he does it, on to the Kentucky Derby? Pope has been there once, with Mylute, who finished fifth in 2013.

"Mandy is not as – she definitely doesn't have Derby fever, like a lot of people do. And it's about the horse and the career. But if he could do it the right way, the timing is great. We're six weeks from the last race and five weeks to the next one. So the timing would be really good. … But we will definitely take it one at a time."