Kentucky Derby: January preps are not to be avoided anymore

January races for legitimate Kentucky Derby contenders used to be unheard of. That was when big-time horses were supposed to be resting for big-time races. 

Now, in the modern era of racing, a new year’s start has become almost de rigueur.

When 65-1 long shot Country House was promoted in 2019, he was the first Derby winner to have raced in January since Barbaro in 2006. Even Maximum Security would have ended that trend had he not been disqualified.

It was not long before their early assignments went from being anomalies to establishing the new norm for the Derby. Each of the last four winners of America’s biggest race had a past performance in January. Country House, Authentic, Mandaloun and Rich Strike turned the exception into the rule. Even the late Medina Spirit, whose 2021 disqualification remains a bone of legal contention, also raced in his 3-year-old January. Twice.

It was not just the winners. Of horses who would hit the board in the Derby, eight of the last 12 since 2019 and 10 of the last 18 since 2017 raced that first month after they turned 3. Before that there was only a single top-three finisher to hold that distinction in the four years dating to 2013. That was when Lecomte (G3) runner-up Golden Soul went on to place second in Louisville.

Yes, 2013. That was the first year a points system from designated prep races replaced graded-stakes earnings as the prism for Derby qualifying. But that alone does not appear to have been the motivation to racing so early in the year.

When Rich Strike, for instance, made his 3-year-old debut at Turfway Park, it was in the Leonatus Stakes. Even if his connections entertained aspirations of getting to the Derby, the race did not carry any qualifying points.

Eventual Derby winner Always Dreaming won a maiden race in January 2017, so there were no points that came with that victory at Tampa Bay Downs.

In other cases, the early start might be a tune-up for a points race – a prep for a prep. The late Code of Honor used a fourth-place finish in the Mucho Macho Man as a stepping stone to winning the Fountain of Youth (G2) and finishing third in the Florida Derby (G1). The two March races gave him the points he needed to get to Kentucky and finish second to Country House.

Then there are the recent cases of using a track that has catapulted horses to success at Churchill Downs, namely Fair Grounds. Since the distances of the top 3-year-old stakes were lengthened three years ago, the list of in-the-money Derby horses to race beforehand in New Orleans has included 2020 third-place finisher Mr. Big News, promoted 2021 winner Mandaloun and 2022’s Epicenter and Zandon, who were second and third.

Whether this remains a trend or ends up being a four-year blip on the radar remains to be seen. Consensus Las Vegas futures favorite Forte is being rested by trainer Todd Pletcher until the March running of the Fountain of Youth, so the old way of doing business has not completely gone away.

With this year’s Lecomte coming Jan. 21, one thing is clear. Serious Derby contenders need not avoid January anymore.