Kentucky Derby 2018 trail: Quip upsets in Tampa Bay Derby
This Quip's no joke.
Parity continued Saturday on the 2018 Kentucky Derby trail as a horse who last won in October — and last ran November, finishing seventh in his only stakes start — dueled to win the Tampa Bay Derby.
The son of Distorted Humor, who’s trained by former Bill Mott assistant Rodolphe Brisset, finished 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.72 under jockey Florent Geroux.
“We’ve been putting a lot of work into him," Brisset said. "Last year we got a pretty good bottom into him too. We got three races. He trained from May to November, so it’s a layoff, but I guess the teaching part is to really come back quick, so it was no real worry and he came around pretty quick.”
Quip’s victory came in an all-out drive to top World of Trouble, a last-out stakes winner at Tampa Bay Downs who set the pace while stretch out for the first time.
As World of Trouble tired, Flameaway got up to steal second off his victory in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes.
Quip exited what has become a key race, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs, where Promises Fulfilled also raced last weekend before winning Gulfstream Park’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
“I’ve always thought a lot of him," Geroux said. "The way the Jockey Club unfolded, he was between horses most of the time and he didn’t really respond when I called him. But I’ve always known he had talent. Rodolphe rides him in the morning, and he said he was doing fantastic. It seemed like he handled the track very well."
Campaigned by WinStar Farm, the China Horse Club and SF Racing, Quip sat off World of Trouble's opening fractions of 24.54 seconds for the quarter mile and 49.48 for the half before prevailing late in the going.
As for what's next, "The ownership has a couple of horses on the Derby trail," Brisset said. "To be honest, let’s enjoy this one and then we see how we come back and we regroup.”
It was not to be for a fifth straight year in this race for Todd Pletcher, whose Vino Rosso added blinkers to stay closer to the pace but faded through the turn as the favorite. Only Flameaway made up ground on the front two with Quip outside of World of Trouble, chasing him nearly the entire way.
Quip, off at 19-1, returned $40.20.