Charlatan's climb continues with an easy Arkansas Derby win
Charlatan continued the auspicious career ascent once made by Triple Crown winner Justify when going wire-to-wire in the first division of Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Arkansas Derby.
A dominant maiden and allowance winner out west who didn’t race at age 2 – same as Justify – Charlatan made career start No. 3 look easy as well when collecting 100 points toward qualifying for the 2020 Kentucky Derby.
Here, of course, is where Charlatan and Justify will diverge, as it’s four more months until the first Saturday in September and his own run at some Triple Crown glory.
A son of Speightstown, Charlatan cut fractions of 22.88, 46.08 and 1:09.68 under jockey Martin Garcia, who offered a few left-handed hits in the stretch but never much had to go to work on the 2-5 favorite.
“I went 1:09 and I was galloping,” said Garcia, who assumed the mount Saturday after Drayden Van Dyke piloted Charlatan for his first two starts. “He did it all within himself. I could feel somebody at the 3/8ths getting close so I just let him go and he took off. That’s a really good horse to do that.”
It was an uncontested lead from the rail in a decidedly easier Arkansas Derby flight, with the second containing, among others, fellow unbeaten Bob Baffert stablemate Nadal.
SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Frederick Hertich III, John D. Fielding and Golconda Stables all campaign the Kentucky-bred Charlatan, a $700,000 Keeneland yearling purchase in 2018. He cemented his Kentucky Derby starting spot with Saturday’s romp but figures to loom large over any 3-year-old dirt stakes he enters between now and then.
With Charlatan across the wire in 1:48.49 for 1 1/8 miles, Basin ran second, Gouverneur Morris was third and Winning Impression fourth as the board hitters essentially took a merry-go-round trip at Oaklawn Park.
Those horses each picked up Road to the 2020 Kentucky Derby points on a 100-40-20-10 basis.
Basin’s second-place effort marked his best finish of 2020. He entered Saturday’s first division of the Arkansas Derby as the field’s only Grade 1 winner – hero of last year’s Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga – but was fourth last out April 11 in the black-type Oaklawn Stakes.
“He was in hot pursuit the whole way,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He hung in there really well. Solid fractions. I thought Ricardo (Santana Jr.) gave him every shot. He just finished second best.”
Todd Pletcher trainee Gouverneur Morris ran one better Saturday than his fourth-place showing March 28 in Gulfstream Park’s Florida Derby (G1). Winning Impression earned 10 Road to the 2020 Kentucky Derby points in his stakes debut for trainer Dallas Stewart.
The Arkansas Derby marked another off-the-board showing for Anneau d’Or, runner-up of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Los Alamitos Futurity (G2). The Blaine Wright trainee entered off a ninth-place run Feb. 15 in another split-division stakes – Fair Grounds’ Risen Star Stakes (G2) – and failed to earn any Derby points again Saturday with a fifth-place finish.
“He broke a little flat footed,” Wright said. “Then he had to use him a little to get some position. We didn’t want to be too far back. We knew that horse had lone speed.
“Man, what a horse (Charlatan) turned out to be. He’s in a different league. It would have been nice to hold on to fourth place money, but all and all not a disgrace for us.”