Cutting Humor figures to get his Kentucky Derby shot

Earlier this month, Jack Wolf, CEO and managing partner of Starlight Racing, didn’t consider Cutting Humor to be a 2019 Kentucky Derby type of horse. But he insisted on a follow up after the Sunland Derby (G3) just in case.

“I remember telling you that,” Wolf said Monday morning with a laugh.

A Todd Pletcher-trained son of First Samurai, Cutting Humor put himself into the field on points with a win in Sunday evening’s prep in New Mexico, where he held off Anothertwistafate by a neck.

“We’ll see how he comes out of the race — which is the general answer you always get,” Wolf said. “If he’s doing well, he’s obviously got the points, and it’s definitely something I’d like to do. What do we have, six weeks? So we’ll just get him back to Todd and see how he does.”

Wolf added of the Kentucky Derby, “As far as I’m concerned, that would be the course I’d want to take.”

Pletcher has saddled a record 52 horses on the first Saturday in May and could have had more along the way. He tends to bring his charges to Churchill Downs, breeze them over the surface and assess whether they’re ready to run the first leg of the Triple Crown series.

Wolf said that will “absolutely” be the case with Cutting Humor given the gap on the calendar between the colt’s breakout win and the Kentucky Derby.

The former $400,000 yearling purchase bounced back after running seventh as the favorite in his Feb. 18 stakes debut in the Southwest (G3) at Oaklawn Park. That day, John Velazquez said, Cutting Humor set himself up for a tough trip by blowing the first turn.

“From where I was sitting, I thought the horse had a big shot against that group,” Wolf said. “I just drew a line through he Southwest. We had a very good race. It looked like he was getting out at the end, but the other horse (Anothertwistafate) never passed him on the gallop out.

“He ran a big race. To me, I wasn’t surprised. I think the horse deserved to get a nice win like that.”

Cutting Humor improved his record to 2-2-1 in six career starts. Should he progress to the Derby, he’d be the first to run in the Louisville-based Starlight Racing’s silks since Itsaknockout in 2015.

Starlight, of course, went down the Triple Crown trail last year as a partner in Justify and and this season owns a share in the Grade 1 winner Improbable, bound for the Arkansas Derby (G1) as a final prep. An older horse among their holdings, Audible will take on the Dubai World Cup (G1) this weekend.