Prat: Why Catching Freedom trails before Louisiana Derby win

New Orleans

There was more to Catching Freedom’s worst-to-first victory Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby than most racegoers and watchers might have noticed.

Winning jockey Flavien Prat took a bit of the story with him when he hustled out of Fair Grounds to catch a flight back to California even before the photo was taken in the winner’s circle.

Catching Freedom rallies to win Louisiana Derby.

“Let me know if you still want to talk about Catching Freedom,” Prat texted Sunday morning after he had settled back in for a day of racing at Santa Anita.

When that phone conversation finally happened Sunday afternoon, Prat said it was something that happened before the race that led him to abandon trainer Brad Cox’s plan to be more forward early.

“I wanted to be a little closer,” he said, “but unfortunately, the horse inside of me broke through the gate.”

Antiquarian popped the latch in post 2. He tossed jockey John Velázquez, who somehow held onto the left rein to keep the lightly raced colt from getting more than two strides out of the gate. The chain reaction looked like it might have had more of an impact to the inside, but there was a less-noticed effect on Catching Freedom two stalls to the outside.

“My horse actually reacted to it and hit the gate as well,” Prat said.

A video replay revealed Catching Freedom was keyed up and ready to race. Reacting to Antiquarian’s false start, he dropped to a near seated position as his face hit the front of the gate, and he awkwardly regained his footing.

It was nearly a minute-and-a-half later when the race finally started.

“Afterward it was kind of quiet in there,” Prat said, “and he jumped just OK out of there.”

Agate Road to the left and Awesome Ruta to the right got the better of the break, and Catching Freedom had no room to go between then. Honor Marie then got to the path where Prat wanted to run.

“He wasn’t able to get away as well as we were hoping,” Cox said right after the race. “He kind of got pinched a little bit, and he found himself last.”

Cox did not want a repeat of last month’s Risen Star (G2), in which Catching Freedom spotted the field 4 3/4 lengths running eighth under Luis Sáez on the way to a third-place finish. Riding the Constitution colt for the first time, Prat found himself having to make up 8 3/4 lengths.

“Obviously, he hesitated a little bit before he jumped out of there,” Prat said. “There was not much I could do about it, but now I can say it worked out well.”

It worked out because Prat was patient. He did not ask Catching Freedom for more until the second turn of the 1 3/16-mile race. As he started scrubbing, the $575,000 colt owned by the Albaugh family had all that pent-up energy coiled in his rear legs from when he reacted to the pre-start commotion. Racing widest of all, Catching Freedom took the lead with 100 yards to go against rivals who by comparison looked like they were standing still.

So what would have happened if Catching Freedom had gotten the clean start and forward trip that his connections had wanted?

“At the end of the day he ran such a good race,” Prat said. “You know things happen for a reason. He was traveling super well. Obviously he was a bit further back than expected. But he was driving well, he was breathing well, and when I had a chance to tip him out, he just responded right away.”

All this bodes well when considering the addition of another 110 yards to get the 1 1/4-mile distance of Kentucky Derby 2024, to which Catching Freedom will be training for the next 40 days.

“When they run a mile-and-three-sixteenths and a mile-and-a-quarter, it’s about the same,” Prat said. “It’s pretty close. It’s encouraging.”

Prat, however, might not have the ride on Catching Freedom come May 4. He will be airborne again for a trip to Oaklawn and Saturday’s $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1). For the first time he will be riding Rebel (G2) winner Timberlake, Catching Freedom's stablemate owned by WinStar Farm and Siena Farm who already has the points he needs to run for the roses at Churchill Downs.

Presuming both are in the Kentucky Derby, Prat will have to choose between Timberlake and Catching Freedom. Cox will have some say-so, but neither is suggesting a decision is anywhere close to being made yet.

“As of right now there is no choice to make,” Prat said. “We’ll see when there’ll be time to make a choice, if we have to make a choice. From now to then a lot of things can happen.”

Circumstances change right up to and through the Derby, which Prat won in 2019 when Country House was promoted over the disqualified Maximum Security.”

As Prat put it, “The reality of today might not be the reality of tomorrow.”