Drazin Taking the Long View With Sunny Ridge

Sunny Ridge's owner-breeder Dennis Drazin may not be trying to shore up a berth in the Kentucky Derby when his homebred sophomore enters the starting gate in Saturday's Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham, but it's not because of a lack of faith in the son of Holy Bull, preferring instead to look a little further down the line.

"I think he'll get 1 ¼ miles, 1 ½ miles," he said of the classic distances. "He's a gelding, and hopefully he'll have a long career. ...  Nyquist and Mohaymen look very formidable, and anything can happen in the Derby. It's 20 horses and the best horse doesn't always win."

With six races under his belt, the Jason Servis-trained Sunny Ridge figures to be one of the most experienced runners in the Gotham field. The Grade 3 Withers winner has posted three victories and a pair of stakes placings, finishing second by 4 ½ lengths in the Grade 1 Champagne last fall at Belmont and coming up a neck behind Exaggerator in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot in November.

For Drazin, Sunny Ridge's success has been more personal than most. Drazin, along with trainer John C. Kimmel, has co-owned or bred every mare on Sunny Ridge's female line going back to the gelding's third dam Bodacious Tatas, the stakes-winning mare of the late 1980s, whose cheeky name has made her an enduring favorite among east coast racing fans.

"[Sunny Ridge] is a horse that I go way back with," Drazin explained. "John Kimmel and I grew up together, and one of our first horses was Bodacious Tatas. She was bred to Seattle Slew and produced Slewdacious, who produced Lignum Vitae, the dam of Sunny Ridge. So this is a horse I bred, a horse I watched grow up as a foal. It's particularly rewarding."

Ranking eighth on the current Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 18 points, Sunny Ridge could earn enough through the prep season to secure a spot on the first Saturday in May, if the connections were so inclined to run, but the New Jersey native Drazin may look to stay closer to home for his spring and summer campaigns.

"Looking at the path for the horse, I'm very involved in New Jersey racing and Monmouth Park is particularly special to me," he said. "The Haskell is a race of importance to me. So, the game plan right now is to skip the Derby, run in the Preakness and Belmont, give him a break, and then run in the Haskell.