Europe road to Kentucky Derby: Coolmore colt is Patton favorite

Mount Kilimanjaro, a France Group 1 runner-up who is coming off a four-month break, is the only Triple Crown nominee among the three colts and two fillies entered in Friday’s US$40,947 Patton, a points race in Ireland on the Europe and Middle East road to Kentucky Derby 2025.

The one-mile Patton will be run around a single left turn on the synthetic course at Dundalk. It is the seventh of eight races on Friday’s card with a scheduled post time of 3 p.m. EST.

A 3-year-old Siyouni colt owned by Coolmore and trained by Aidan O’Brien, Mount Kilimanjaro finished second to stablemate Twain on Oct. 27 in the Criterium International (G1) going one mile on heavy turf at Saint-Cloud, France. He had broken his maiden Oct. 5 in a top-level conditions race over soft turf at ParisLongchamp. That was his third race overall and his first going longer than seven furlongs.

Out of U.S.-raced, Galileo mare Decorating, Mount Kilimanjaro makes his first start off the turf and has Ryan Moore riding from post 5. He has been assigned 137 pounds, six to eight more than anyone else in the race and 11 more than anyone will carry in the Kentucky Derby.

Powerful Lady, who broke her maiden going a mile against fillies Jan. 10 at Dundalk, gets her fifth chance to get her first win against males. Spicy Margarita, who earned her first victory last month in a seven-furlong fillies race, and Titanium Emperor, a first-time starter, represent trainer Adrian Murray. Long-shot maiden Glinka tries to hit the board for the first time for trainer Joseph O’Brien.

For the five would-be finishers, The Patton is worth 20-10-6-4-2 points toward the one Europe-Middle East invitation to the Kentucky Derby. The field-size minimum for top-level preps in the U.S. does not apply here. So far none of the points earners in Europe was among the 373 early nominees to the Triple Crown. A $6,000 late nomination by April 7 can change that.

Even though the Patton is the last of six Europe races on this separate trail, the UAE Derby (G2) was added this year and probably will supersede the results of the early qualifiers. Since the Meydan race carries 100-50-25-15-10 points, the winner April 5 will get an automatic invitation provided he or she is nominated and is not a Southern Hemisphere 3-year-old, which translates to an ineligible 4-year-old for the purposes of the Triple Crown.

What is now the Europe-Middle East road was established in 2017-18, but the only time the invitation was accepted was that first year. That was when two-time U.K. stakes winner Gronkowski was headed to the 2018 Derby before he reportedly spiked a fever in quarantine.