Kentucky Derby 2018 trail: No doubt as McKinzie wins Sham

By Jonathan Lintner

McKinzie needed a stewards’ decision to win in his first try at a graded stakes. There was no question, however, that he was best in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Sham Stakes on the road to the 2018 Kentucky Derby.

The Bob Baffert trainee picked up 10 more points toward a spot in the Derby starting gate and showed a new dimension in his third start. With blinkers off, the son of Street Sense rallied through the turn and glided to a 3 1/2-length victory at Santa Anita Park.

"He finished full of run," said jockey Mike Smith. "He went underneath the wire well within himself and galloped out really nice."

At 1-5 odds, McKinzie completed the one-mile race distance in a final time of 1:36.58. 

The performance helped erase memories of the last time the colt earned top placing. While second across the wire, stewards boosted him above Baffert stablemate Solomini due to bumps in the lane of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity back on Dec. 9.

"He's getting better," Smith said. "That was only his second time out at Los Al, and I thought he ran a tremendous race. The horses he ran with that day were very, very talented horses. I thought he could move forward from that race, and he did."

"He got a lot out of this," Baffert added. "Last time, he got a little tired at the end. It just goes to show you the Los Alamitos Futurity was a good race. They were good horses.

This time, McKinzie, the No. 6 horse, took an outside but clean trip. When asked through the turn, he passed Shivermetimbers for second and caught All Out Blitz on the lead. It was over well before the wire, giving Baffert his fifth win in the Sham and first since Collected in 2016.

McKinzie, who improved to 3-for-3 in his career, returned $2.40 with All Out Blitz the runner-up and My Boy Jack third.

"He came back to run like we hoped," Baffert said. "I was happy. Everything went smooth; that’s what you want."

The 4-1 third choice on the morning line, Mourinho — also the expected pace-setter in the Sham — scratched the morning of the race. Baffert will instead run him in the Jan. 15 Smarty Jones Stakes, another points-paying Derby prep at Oaklawn Park.