Independence Hall offers 'sky blue potential' on the Derby trail

In addition to the horses Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners acquires at auction, there’s a near-daily search for prospects at the races — the type of promising young horse to buy into, then take its shareholders to the sport’s biggest stages.

Such horses possess what Eclipse calls “sky blue potential,” and Aron Wellman, the partnership’s president, knew he’d found it in the 2-year-old colt Independence Hall. Then the son of Constitution went from a Parx maiden winner to a romping 12 1/4-length hero of the Nashua Stakes (G3) in his new colors.

“We obviously thought he could be a very good horse — potentially a special horse — and the performance he turned in in the Nashua was extraordinary, without question,” Wellman said. “Now, the bar has been set so high — not for him, but by him — that we’re just on the human side of the equation trying to posture Independence Hall to continue to sustain that level of impression.”

The Michael Trombetta trainee received plenty of time away from the races following the Nov. 3 Nashua given fear of a bounce if brought back in a race such as the Remsen Stakes (G2). Rather, he’s targeting the Jan. 1 Jerome Stakes going a mile at Aqueduct to kick off his official run up to the 2020 Kentucky Derby.

“We’ve very carefully tried to map out a plan working backwards from the Kentucky Derby with that being our biggest goal, of course,” Wellman said. “But it’s up to the horse to continue to prove he’s worthy of this type of hype and discussion.”

Kathleen and Robert Verratti, Independence Hall’s original owners, have retained an interest in the colt. Twin Creeks Racing meanwhile bought in with Eclipse. Twin Creeks campaigned the hot first-crop sire, Constitution, and has a history of making it to the Derby alongside Eclipse; they were there together in 2016 with Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner Destin, who also ran second in the Belmont Stakes.

This particular partnership happened in part thanks to Ron Anderson, the jockey “agent to the stars” who connected Wellman with the Maryland-based trainer Trombetta earlier this summer. Eclipse first bought into a Saratoga debut-winning filly named Remain Anonymous.

“So when Independence Hall broke his maiden at Parx, he immediately came on to our radar,” Wellman said. “Thanks to connection Ron had given me to Michael, it was an easy call.”

William Hill U.S. lists Independence Hall as the 8-1 co-favorite to win the Derby. On Dec. 1, he closed at 13-1 in Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, making the colt the co-third individual choice.

The first-out win on Sept. 21 came on the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) undercard. Independence Hall was away slowly but drew away, as the chart describes “with speed to spare.”

Jose Ortiz picked up the mount upon Independence Hall’s first trip to Aqueduct. A day after all the theatrics of a Breeders’ Cup wrapped up many seasons on the west coast, this colt gave racing fans something to look forward to in 2020 when pressing the pace thanks to a much better break, then distancing to a dominant victory.

“We’re trying to keep our feet on the ground, of course, but at the same time enjoy this experience with a horse that we think is certainly worthy of the discussion and being on this path,” Wellman said.

“We feel for a number of reasons that the Jerome is a logical start for his 3-year-old campaign. We’ve done everything in our power to put him in a situation to continue to succeed.”