Ky. Derby prep x 2: Colebrook has memorable travel story

Florence, Ky.

Ben Colebrook has made it a priority in his training career to be there when it comes time to saddle his horses. After that, the rest is out of his hands.

“I’m not racing them,” he said.

So it was that the trainer of biggest upset in the chase for Kentucky Derby 2023 qualifying points was in the paddock at Aqueduct to give a leg up to José Lezcano. By the time 23-1 long shot Raise Cain was crossing the finish line to win the Gotham Stakes (G3) and a spot in the Derby, Colebrook was in a race of his own.

“There was enough time,” he said, “but I just didn’t want to cut it close.”

Raise Cain pulls off 23-1 upset in Gotham.

Colebrook had another horse to saddle – but not at Aqueduct. He had to travel 600 miles in 4 1/2 hours to look after Scoobie Quando in another Derby prep, the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park.

While the Gotham was being run and won, Colebrook was getting a ride to go the three miles to JFK International Airport. On a good day that takes 10 minutes. But good traffic days in New York ended with the invention of the automobile.

Oh, wait a minute. As a matter of fact, let’s rewrite that.

“Wait a minute.”

That was what Colebrook told his driver. He asked her to pause the journey just for a minute or two. Multi-tasking as he was, he thought he could watch at least the start of the Gotham. Maybe more.

“I got to watch most of the race,” he said, “because I was in the Uber as they were breaking down the backside.”

Colebrook was cutting it a little close. But not that close.

“I got to watch them run down the backside,” he said, taking advantage of the fact it was a one-turn mile rather than a two-turn spin around the whole track. “Then I watched the rest of it on my phone.”

Instead of leaving at the front of the property near the Resorts World New York City casino, he was closer to 114th Street in Ozone Park, near Aqueduct’s mile chute.

“I got her to stop and watch the break,” Colebrook said, describing how he was picked up in the ride-share area outside the clubhouse entrance to Aqueduct. Instead of heading directly south down Aqueduct Road, he asked for the brief detour.

Once the horses were out of sight, so was Colebrook, headed back toward the Belt Parkway and whatever direction his driver took him to JFK.

By the time he could breathe a little, it was nighttime back in Kentucky. Colebrook was standing on the new grass apron at Turfway Park. Wearing a black jacket, jeans and a baseball cap on the 42-degree night near Cincinnati, he routinely made sure the tack was tight on Scoobie Quando. In the saddling stall, he helped Luan Machado into the irons, and then he told the story of how he practically was in two places at once.

Congruent defeats Scoobie Quando in Battaglia.

This was not quite a first for Colebrook, who turned 45 on Friday. The part about getting to two Derby preps on the same day was unique. But not the airplane dash between two horse races.

“Actually, it’s a funny story,” he said. “It was not a one-day, but it was a two-day. I went to Belmont on Oaks day to saddle a maiden for Claiborne, and I had to get back because Limousine Liberal was running on Derby day.”

Those details require some exposition for the uninitiated. Five years ago Colebrook, who is based in Kentucky, was looking after Wrath, a promising 2-year-old by Flatter who was making his debut in a $100,000 maiden sprint at Belmont Park. At the same time, a big crowd was assembling for Kentucky Oaks day back home at Churchill Downs.

On Long Island, Wrath went off as the third choice with jockey Albin Jiménez, and he made a nice late run finishing runner-up to second-time starter Social Fan.

But back to Colebrook. He had to return to Louisville, which is not the travel hub that Cincinnati is. And Belmont Park is not as close to an airport as Aqueduct is. Still, Colebrook had almost exactly 24 hours to get himself into the shadow of the twin spires to saddle 4-year-old Limousine Liberal for the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes (G2).

The travel gauntlet had been laid before him.

“It was the same kind of deal,” Colebrook said. “If I didn’t make it back, I didn’t want to fly on Derby day. I actually made it from Belmont to LaGuardia Airport.”

No, not the eight miles to JFK. This was a 13-mile trip on the Cross Island Parkway to the Long Island Expressway to Grand Central Parkway. Any New Yorker knows that is a recipe for a nightmare on the best of days. This, however, was a Friday afternoon, when movement is a luxury.

“This was LaGuardia,” Colebrook said. “And I had to return the rental car. I think I left Belmont an hour before my flight.”

This had all the makings of a famous episode of “Seinfeld,” but it turned out better in the trainer’s real life five years ago than it did for Costanza and Kramer in 1992.

“I did it all,” said Colebrook, who then remembered when he got in his ride-share car Saturday afternoon that he had to think twice. It was that moment every seasoned New York air traveler has experienced.

“When I got in my Uber today,” Colebrook recalled, “I said, ‘LaGuardia.’ She said, ‘LaGuardia? You’re going to JFK.’ ”

Colebrook made it to the right airport and the right flight, which was on time. He was back at Turfway in plenty of time to saddle Scoobie Quando just as he won his mad dash on that Friday before the first Saturday in May 2016. That experience was not quite as crazy as it was this first Saturday in March.

“It wasn’t the same day, so I had a day in between,” he said. “But if I didn’t make it on that flight, I don’t know if I would have made it on Derby day. You don’t want to be flying Derby day.”

It is not unusual for jockeys to hurry themselves to flights just so they can be in more than one big race at more than one track. It certainly is not unheard of for owners and trainers, either. Yet Colebrook admitted this felt out of body.

“I was kind of pinching myself on the plane a little bit just to make sure,” he said just before he was reminded of the increasing frequency of late and canceled flights these days.

“Look, it was going to get handled whether I made it or not,” Colebrook said. “I just wanted to give myself a chance to make it. If I didn’t make it, I’m not that important.”

Limousine Liberal finished sixth as a 9-2 fourth choice that day in 2016. Scoobie Quando closed into rail traffic Saturday night but still took second and earned eight points toward a possible start this spring in the Kentucky Derby.

“He flew home and showed his class,” Colebrook said afterward. “We’re proud of him. We picked up a couple points.”

He said he did not know whether Scoobie Quando would line up next month for the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), Turfway Park’s win-and-you’re-in qualifier for the Derby.

Oh, yes. Not to bury the bigger story Saturday, but Raise Cain’s big upset in the Gotham was something of an afterthought by the time Colebrook delivered his travelogue.

“He just never had any pace to run into,” Colebrook said about Raise Cain, this time face to face with a reporter rather than on the phone from the back of a car. “We were kind of waiting on a race where we could get some pace for him to close into. He’s kind of been in these paceless races. We finally got it today, and he showed up.”

So did a loose horse. Howgreatisnate stumbled out of the gate and dismounted jockey J.D. Acosta, who was able to walk away from the spill. Howgreatisnate ran away from it, circling the other 13 starters in the Aqueduct mud.

From the vantage point of his ride to the airport, Colebrook was not worried. Actually, he said he was chuffed with confidence.

“I kind of was like he’s going to win because of the loose horse,” he said. “It won’t bother him. When I saw the loose horse, it was like there’s one less horse you’ve got to beat, and it won’t bother him. I think José was the only jock that noticed there was a loose horse, because he kind of took back. I don’t know if the other horses really even knew there was a loose horse.”

Once the dust, or the mud, settled on the race, Colebrook said he heard from another trainer to offer him congratulations.

“Wesley Ward was joking with me,” he said. “He called me after the race, because we’re good buddies. He said, ‘You beat the loose horse. Nobody beats the loose horse.’ ”

As with Scoobie Quando, Colebrook was not putting plans for Raise Cain’s final Derby prep in ink just yet.

“You don’t want to think too far ahead,” he said. “Just taking it minute by minute at this stage. We’ll see what happens.”

If Colebrook were to decide on the Jeff Ruby Steaks for Scoobie Quando and the Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct for Raise Cain, there is good news on the April schedule. They are a week apart.