Mont Pelato may travel from France for Kentucky Derby

There is reason to believe that we may have our first foreign-trained horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Mont Pelato, trained in Bordeaux, France by Christophe Ferland, is one of just seven foreign-trained horses nominated to the Triple Crown and under serious consideration for the Run for the Roses. A son of Carter Handicap winner Forest Danger out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, Mont Pelato began his career with two victories on the Deauville Fibresand course this winter. On Dec. 9, he whistled by two lengths in a 1 3/16-mile maiden. On Jan. 8, he took a conditions race at the same distance by three lengths.

Ferland will test Mont Pelato in the Prix Policeman, a 1 1/4-mile listed race on the Cagnes-sur-Mer Fibresand on Feb. 26.

“If he wins that day, the plan is to send him to Keeneland for the Blue Grass Stakes,” Ferland said on Friday. “I knew from the first day I had this horse that he had talent, and so I took my time with him and didn’t run him until December of his 2-year-old season.”

No horse trained in France has run in the Kentucky Derby since Francois Boutin saddled Arazi to an eighth-place finish as the 9-10 favorite in 1991. While Mont Pelato, who is owned by Frederic Sauque, still has much to prove, he has won twice at close to the Derby distance. And in running in the Blue Grass, he will be following in the footsteps of Bold Arrangement, who finished third in the 1986 running, albeit on dirt, before his second-place finish in the Derby.

The performance of Bold Arrangement led to a spate of foreign Derby interest, which has petered out of late. The Jeremy Noseda-trained Awesome Act trailed home last in last year’s Derby as the first foreign-trained horse in the Run for the Roses since 2002. Even Godolphin seems to have given up its hopes for the race as evidenced by the switch in Dubai from the Nad Al Sheba dirt track to the Meydan Tapeta.

Noseda has nominated three to the Triple Crown and is leaving open the possibility of any of them showing up at Churchill Downs on May 7. The best of them is the Johannesburg colt Peter Martins. Owned by balletomane Earle Mack and named for the artistic director of New York City Ballet, Peter Martins won a seven-furlong Newmarket allowance in his July 30 debut by five lengths before being sidelined by an injury during the run-up to Doncaster’s Group 2 Champagne Stakes. Noseda also has undefeated maiden winners Cassini Flight (by Bernardini) and Western Aristocrat (by Mr. Greeley) as Derby possibles.

“The first plan is to run Peter Martins in the Craven Stakes” at Newmarket on April 14, followed by the 2000 Guineas on April 30, Noseda said, “But that could change during the next month.”