No Derby for J.B.'s Thunder

Trainer Al Stall is about to swing into stakes action at Fair Grounds and Louisiana points beyond, but Grade 1 winner J.B.’s Thunder will not be among the stable’s participants, Stall said Friday.

J.B.’s Thunder won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland last October after capturing his career debut in a Saratoga turf route, but he finished a distant ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Stall, after watching J.B.’s Thunder post one slow three-furlong Fair Grounds drill, is pulling the plug on any Triple Crown possibilities.

“He’s not a Derby horse,” Stall said. “I don’t think he trains as well over dirt as he does over Poly or turf. He’s just not doing as good as I thought he was doing in Kentucky.”

Stall said J.B.’s Thunder would remain in light training for the time being, and didn’t rule out the possibility of the colt making a race such as the Blue Grass Stakes in April at Keeneland.