Flameaway to represent 'home' team in Kentucky Derby 2018

Among Flameaway’s nine races spread across seven tracks is a lone start at Churchill Downs — and one that didn’t go so well. The colt finished sixth to open the 2018 Kentucky Derby trail in the Grade 3 Iroquois, with trainer Mark Casse saying Flameaway didn’t like the kickback.

The son of Scat Daddy started his 3-year-old season with a narrow win over turf, but owner John Oxley hadn't given up on this one as a Kentucky Derby prospect.

Sometimes, Derby fever pays off.

Three months later, Flameaway assured himself a spot in the field by running second to champion Good Magic in Saturday’s Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes.

“He’s just so classy,” Casse said. “You’ve got to love him. I mean, he doesn’t care. I got what I asked for. I said I wanted a fight at the top of the lane, and we got one. Unfortunately we were second-best today, but hey, first Saturday in May.”

Flameaway won the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes in February, then returned over the same surface in March for a runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby. In the Blue Grass, he shot to the early lead from the No. 12 post position and set the fractions before overtaken late.

Casse said Flameaway “ducked in” when Good Magic’s jockey, Jose Ortiz, changed directions with his whip, but that the colt “never gave up.” The final margin was 1 1/2 lengths.

Saturday’s results elsewhere — particularly the Grade 2 Wood Memorial won by Vino Rosso — seemed to flatter Flameaway.

“We beat the Wood winner twice already, so it looks like Tampa’s races are pretty good,” Casse said. “I think we can hold our head high, and you know where home is for us.”

That’s Churchill Downs, where Flameaway was set to ship to Sunday to begin his Kentucky Derby preparations.