Keeneland notes: Derby hopeful Sainthood drills 'textbook' work

WinStar Farm and CHC Inc.’s Sainthood, second in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park on March 27, worked a half-mile Friday at Keeneland in company in 48.6 seconds over a fast track with Amelia Green in the saddle.

Sainthood, trained by Todd Pletcher, accumulated 40 points toward the Kentucky Derby, a total that ranks 18th on the Derby leaderboard with two points races remaining. The Derby is limited to the top 20 point earners that pass the entry box.

“We are planning on it,” WinStar President/CEO and Racing Manager Elliott Walden said of running in the Derby. “He worked great. It was textbook.”

Working with maiden winner Donegal Bay, Sainthood produced fractions of 12.8, 24.6 and 48.6 and then galloped out five-eighths in 1:01, 6 furlongs in 1:13.8 and seven-eighths in 1:27.6.

Sainthood is scheduled to ship to Churchill Downs on Sunday morning after training hours. He is one of four Pletcher trainees in the top 20 of the Derby standings alongside Florida Derby (G1) winner Known Agenda, Wood Memorial (G2) hero Bourbonic and Wood runner-up Dynamic One.

Hockey Dad could enter Derby picture with Lexington win

Going into Saturday’s final two races that award qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby Reddam Racing’s homebred Hockey Dad sits in 25th place on the leaderboard with the 20 points he picked up for finishing third in the Jeff Ruby.

Saturday’s $200,000 Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland offers 34 Derby points on a 20-8-4-2 scale to the first- through fourth-place finishers. A win or a second-place finish – coupled with the result of the Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park – could vault Hockey Dad into the top 20 and a spot in the starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 1.

Hockey Dad has been at Keeneland since the Jeff Ruby. Trainer Doug O’Neill said via text that the decision to supplement the son of champion and 2016 Derby winner Nyquist into the Lexington for $6,000 was made in the past few days.

“It was better to stay here than to go back to California and then come back again,” said O’Neill assistant Sabas Rivera, who is overseeing Hockey Dad’s preparation at Keeneland while stabled in the barn of former O’Neill assistant Jack Sisterson. “He is doing very well, and I think he will run big.”

“We’ll see how Saturday goes,” O’Neill texted regarding a possible Derby bid for Hockey Dad. “He’s a very talented son of Nyquist.”

O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam already have two Kentucky Derby victories to their credit with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist.

O’Neill has one other runner in California ready to go to Churchill in Hot Rod Charlie. Owned by the partnership of Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing and William Strauss, Hot Rod Charlie won the Louisiana Derby (G2) in his most recent start and was second at Keeneland last fall to champion Essential Quality in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Hot Rod Charlie is expected to ship to Churchill Derby Week.

Jenny Wiley hopeful Maxim Rate a different horse for 2nd Keeneland appearance

Slam Dunk Racing and James Branham’s Maxim Rate makes her return to Keeneland in Saturday’s 33rd running of the $300,000 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1), and her connections are looking for a better outcome than her initial appearance here in 2019.

“She is a different filly now,” said Carlos Santamaria, assistant to trainer Simon Callaghan. “When she ran here before (a seventh-place finish in the Valley View (G3)), she was starting to get a little sour on us.”

After a freshening, Maxim Rate came back with a solid 2020 in which she compiled a 6: 3-2-0 record that included a 2½-length victory in the Goldikova (G2) at Santa Anita.

She closed 2020 with a fifth-place finish in the Matriarch (G1) at Del Mar.

“She only got beat two lengths at Del Mar and numbers-wise, that was one of her best races,” Santamaria said. “We gave her another break after that, and she liked the time off.”

Maxim Rate jogged two miles Friday morning and will jog another mile early Saturday morning before the Jenny Wiley. She will be reunited in the stakes with jockey Umberto Rispoli, who was aboard for her three victories in 2020.

“We had pointed her to the race last weekend at Santa Anita (the Royal Heroine (G2)) or this one,” Santamaria said. “But Mr. Branham lives here and wanted to see her run, so we came here.”

Ben Ali entrant Silver Dust closing in on millionaire status

Tom Durant’s veteran Silver Dust can inch closer to the million-dollar mark in earnings Saturday should he capture the 1 1/8-mile, $150,000 Ben Ali (G3) and its $90,000 top prize.

Trained by Bret Calhoun, the 7-year-old Silver Dust is a three-time Grade 3 winner with four other placings in graded events in his career that began in the fall of 2016. Silver Dust owns a record of 32: 6-7-5 for earnings of $885,677.

“Last year, he was all dressed up with nowhere to go because of the pandemic,” Calhoun said. “There were a lot of races that went away and now there are plenty of races for older horses.”

Silver Dust will be making his second start of the year Saturday after closing 2020 with a 10th-place finish at Keeneland in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

“I ran him on the grass at Fair Grounds (on March 7) because he could walk right out of his stall and not have to ship for a dirt race,” Calhoun said. “He got enough out of it that it set him up well for this spot. This is the right spot at the right time.”