Plus Que Parfait brings 'turf horse' look into Belmont Derby
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Eclipse Sportswire
Plus Que Parfait will make his first start on grass since his debut last summer at Ellis Park when the UAE Derby (G2) winner competes in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Derby Invitational at New York’s Belmont Park.
Trained by Brendan Walsh, Plus Que Parfait started his career with a third at Ellis Park in a mile maiden race on turf. The winner that day was fellow Belmont Derby entrant Henley’s Joy, who in his next start captured the $400,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile.
Trained by Brendan Walsh, Plus Que Parfait started his career with a third at Ellis Park in a mile maiden race on turf. The winner that day was fellow Belmont Derby entrant Henley’s Joy, who in his next start captured the $400,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile.
“I can’t see why he wouldn’t like it," Walsh said of Plus Que Parfait. "He’s been working good on it. Sometimes I start my horses on grass if they need to go two turns. It’s a nice experience for them. Unless they’re super sharp on the dirt going long, they get that kick back and get beat 20 lengths, and I don’t think that’s good for them. But him, I think we just decided we’d start him on grass.
“We always liked his dirt works, and then I ran him here (at Churchill in his second start) in a one-turn mile maiden on dirt and he ran well. We said we’d stick to it for Keeneland, for obvious reasons with a 2-year-old going into their 3-year-old year. Then he broke his maiden at Keeneland. If you break your maiden at Keeneland, then you’re starting to think that you might be Derby trail. We ran him in Churchill’s Kentucky Jockey Club and he ran well there (second by a neck) and there was no reason to take him off the dirt then.”
Plus Que Parfait’s Derby trail took a detour when the Point of Entry colt was fifth and then 13th in two 3-year-old stakes at the Fair Grounds. Instead of going back in the Louisiana Derby, Plus Que Parfait headed to Dubai for the $2.5 million UAE Derby, winning by three-quarters of a length over Gray Magician to earn a spot in the Kentucky Derby.
Plus Que Parfait checked in ninth in the Kentucky Derby but lost by only a total of 5 1/4 lengths behind first-place finisher Maximum Security and 3 1/2 lengths behind Country House, who crossed under the wire in second but was moved up to the victory on Maximum Security’s disqualification.
The Belmont Derby is Plus Que Parfait’s first start since the May 4 Derby.
“The turf has always been in the back of our minds, given his sire,” Walsh said. “You watch him gallop in the morning and you’d think, ‘That’s a turf horse.’ He’s got that high-knee action. So we’ll give it try. And if it works, it will open a lot of doors for him. If it doesn’t, we can always go back to the dirt. The distance probably really is what attracted the race to us. The mile and a quarter should be perfect for him. He’s kind of a wind-up horse. He’ll wind himself up through the race and hopefully he’ll still be winding at the end.
“If he runs to his dirt form, or maybe a little better, that should put him right there.”
Should either Plus Que Parfait or Henley’s Joy take the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Derby, he would become the fourth Grade 1 winner to have raced at Ellis Park as a 2-year-old in 2018. The first three are Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress, Belmont’s Woody Stephens upset winner Hog Creek Hustle and Knicks Go, who won Keeneland’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity and was second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall.
Asked if he has any more Plus Que Parfaits to debut this summer at Ellis, Walsh said, “I’m hoping. I mean, this time last year, we didn’t think we (were) going to do what he turned around and did. We have some nice 2-year-olds and they should be due to run the second half of July, the beginning of August. This time last year, we never dreamt of the Derby. We thought he was a nice horse, but this game will make you a pessimist.”
Walsh called Ellis “a great experience for a 2-year-old.”
“You go down there and it’s almost like a country fair,” he said. “It’s very easy on their minds. The track is excellent. As long as we’ve been running horses down there, I’ve never had a horse come back bad off of Ellis — turf or dirt. And I’ve never seen a horse come back bad mentally from the race. So it’s a good place.”
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