Louisiana Derby's timing gives Pletcher options with Spinoff

With 52 starters, no trainer in history of the sport has run more horses in the Kentucky Derby than Todd Pletcher. He’s started at least three horses in the race a record nine times, winning it twice, with Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017). Year in and year out, his stable is strongly represented in the Triple Crown preps.

On Saturday, Pletcher will aim to qualify his first Derby contender of the season when sending lightly raced Spinoff in the Louisiana Derby (G2).

Pletcher has won previous runnings of Fair Ground' final local prep with Circular Quay (2007), Mission Impazible (2010), Revolutionary (2013) and Noble Indy (2018). In addition, Pletcher has either won or placed in five of the last six runnings of the event, which awards a total of 170 points to the Top 4 finishers on a 100-40-20-10 scale.

Spinoff, a Wertheimer and Frere-owned homebred son of Hard Spun, emerged from a six-month layoff in impressive fashion last time out when defeating winners over the main track at Tampa Bay Downs by 11 ¾ lengths. The eye-opening performance was his first start since finishing third in the Aug. 12 Saratoga Special (G2), beaten 2 ¾ lengths by two-time stakes winner Call Paul.

“We’ve always had high hopes for him,” Pletcher said. “He had a little setback after the Saratoga Special and we felt the two-turn race at Tampa was the best starting point to the path moving forward. He was so much the best in that race. He was looking around at the starting gate and idling a bit. (Jockey) Johnny (Velazquez) had to keep him to task.”

Since that victory, Spinoff has recorded a pair of works at Palm Beach Downs in South Florida, the most recent of which was a five-furlong drill in 1:00.40. 

“He’s trained like we had hoped since the Tampa race and the timing of the Louisiana Derby is good for him,” Pletcher said. “With six weeks before the Kentucky Derby, we can still run back in the Arkansas Derby, or if he runs really well on Saturday, I feel very comfortable just training him up to Louisville.”

Spinoff is the most lightly raced contender in the 11-horse Louisiana Derby field with three starts, the same number as Noble Indy this time last year when he won the race. Top competition Saturday is War of Will, who has already this season won the Lecomte (G2) and Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds. Spinoff is the 8-1 co-third choice in the field.

“War of Will has been very impressive,” Pletcher said. “We are drawn outside of him, so Johnny should be able to keep tabs on where he’s at. Spinoff has a lot of natural early speed, so we expect to be forwardly placed. We’d like to save some ground, but we can be on the lead or targeting. Maybe we will be targeting War of Will. It all depends on how it plays out.”

Spinoff arrived at Fair Grounds on Tuesday morning along with Noble Indy, who runs in the New Orleans Handicap (G2) on the undercard.