Kentucky Derby trail: Hit Show finds room to win Withers

New York

Trainer Brad Cox is making the right moves on the Kentucky Derby 2023 trail. When the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes was postponed because of harsh winter weather in New York, Cox had to wait an extra week to earn his fifth victory on the Derby trail with Hit Show.

“I just liked the way the Withers was coming up,” Cox said. “I thought he fit well with the group. Obviously, he was 6-5, so everybody else thought so, too. It actually worked out well delaying the race a week as we had a little bit of an issue getting (a flight) out of Memphis. We would have made the race last week, but we would have been close on getting there in time.”

Hit Show became the fourth Cox-trained 3-year-old to win an official Derby prep and earned 20 Kentucky Derby points for his Withers win. Instant Coffee has two wins and is in second position on the points list with 32. Jace’s Road has 15 points and Victory Formation got 10 points for his win in the Smarty Jones.

Hit Show broke alertly and settled into fifth position on the rail behind the pace setter and second betting choice Arctic Arrogance. Jockey Manny Franco was content to wait for an opening to move outside knowing that he had plenty of horse underneath him.

“The horse helped me a lot,” Franco said. “He had a clean break. He broke so sharp out of there and put me in a perfect position. I wanted to be fourth or fifth and I was following the right horse and I was so happy with the position. When it was time to move, he was there for me. He responded really well and got the job done.”

The 1 1/8-mile Withers was run on an Aqueduct main track that has been very deep and tiring while producing times that comparatively are very slow. Hit Show, who was sent off as the 6-5 favorite, crossed the finish line 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Arctic Arrogance in a final time of 1:54.71. Hit Show was making the fourth start of his career, handled the distance with ease and was full of run after crossing the finish line.

“He’s a little green. He’s learning race by race and I think he’ll be OK,” Franco said. “I think the more distance the better for him. I put my hands down (in the gallop-out), and I didn’t pull on him. I just let him gallop out and he kept going around. I had to pull him up to make him stop.”

The 20-8-6-4-2 Derby qualifying points went to Hit Show, who paid $4.60, $3.00 and $2.30 across the board, Artic Arrogance, General Banker, Andiamo a Firenze and Prove Right.

Asked about a possible next start for Hit Show, who is a gray, home-bred son of Candy Ride out of a Tapit mare from the stable of Gary and Mary West, Cox said the Wood Memorial on April 8 is a possibility.

“I’m going to talk it over with the Wests and we’ll make a decision,” Cox said. “He’ll go back to Belmont tonight and chill out there for a while and recover, and we’ll come up with a game plan for him. It very well could be the Wood Memorial. He obviously likes the racetrack there, and we’ll see how things go.”