With one horse in his stable having punched his ticket to the 144th Kentucky Derby, four-time race winner Wayne Lukas looks for reinforcements in the first-Saturday-in-May classic at Churchill Downs.
And if the subject is roses, fellow trainers Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher, with six Derby wins between them, belong in the discussion, while two would-be Derby winners, Steve Asmussen and Dale Romans, embark on the road to the Triple Crown.
All have horses in the Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest today, Oaklawn Park's second of four major preps for the May 5 summit meeting in Louisville. Eleven 3-year-olds were entered at a mile and sixteenth, although Principe Guilherme will be scratched after running seventh in Saturday's Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. Lukas scratched Southwest entrant Kentucky Club from the Risen Star, which the Hall of Famer took with last-out Oaklawn winner Bravazo nosing out the Asmussen-trained Snapper Sinclair in a photo finish of 21-1 and 41-1 longshots.
An eight-length Oaklawn winner Jan. 27 against $30,000 maiden claimers, Kentucky Club is the only non-Triple Crown nominee in the Southwest, the last of the 10-4-2-1 point producers for the Kentucky Derby. Bravazo rose atop the Derby points standings with 50 in the Risen Star, Lukas saying Sunday that the Grade 2 $1 million Louisiana Derby March 24 at Fair Grounds might be next for the Calumet Farm colt by Awesome Again.
Meanwhile, Lukas has groomed a Grade 1 winner from last year's crop of juvenile males for his 3-year-old debut. Sporting Chance, last seen on Labor Day winning the Hopeful at Saratoga despite veering out late, needs Derby points, although the Southwest is hardly his trainer's major spring objective for the Tiznow colt. If not today, Sporting Chance can earn points in two other Oaklawn preps, the Grade 2 $900,000 Rebel March 17 or the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby April 14, or elsewhere.
"We'd liked to win, we want to win, but we understand this is step one, too," Lukas said.
More pertinent is the Southwest, which Lukas won in 1992 with longshot Big Sur, marks the two-turn debut for Sporing Chance, a $575,000 sales yearling owned by longtime Lukas clients Robert Baker and William Mack.
"Most of the time when they do it for the first time, they run pretty good because they don't know how far they are going to go," Lukas said. "After that, they get smart. They figure it out, 'Well, that's all the way around here and better do something.'
"He's genuine. The question will be whether I've got him seasoned enough at this point -- whether he's fit enough. I think he can get two turns."
Luis Saez stays aboard Sporting Chance, a neck winner of the Hopeful in an eventful finish.
"I don't know what happened there," Lukas said. "He hit him a little bit low, left-handed, and maybe surprised him."
As a precaution, Sporting Chance has been fitted with a small shadow roll, a piece of equipment normally made of sheepskin and attached to the noseband of the bridle. One is used to lower a horse's head and restrict vision, sharpening a horse's focus on what is in front.
"I thought one morning we were out there ... (that) he was looking around a little bit and I put that on him," Lukas said. "It's almost cosmetic more than anything."
Lukas goes from saddling Mourinho for the Smarty Jones in Baffert's absence Jan. 15 to challenging the Smarty Jones winner and early 2-1 Southwest favorite.
The son of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner and Arkansas Derby runner-up Super Saver won the one-mile Smarty Jones in near-laboratory conditions. Jockey Drayden Van Dyke was allowed to set a 48-second opening half and the two jogged home by 3 1/4 lengths, Mourinho getting blinkers for his two-turn debut and first race outside California.
Keeping the mount, Van Dyke can expect more pace pressure in the Southwest, although with four works at Santa Anita, the $625,000 sales graduate appears to have kept his edge. Continually furthering the colt's education, Baffert used a stablemate as a target when Mourinho clocked seven furlongs in 1:26 Feb. 7.
American Pharoah, after winning the 2015 Rebel on the lead in his 3-year-old debut, came slightly off the pace in taking the Arkansas Derby en route to sweeping the Triple Crown. Though Baffert also trained American Pharoah, don't assume Mourinho will be taken back in the Southwest.
"He's a speed horse," Baffert said. "Last time he worked, he was behind because some group broke out in front of him. He handled it well, but he's a speed horse. He's doing really well, and we're excited about it."
Asmussen gives Combatant another try against Mourinho after a strong second in the Southwest (his finish also to Greyvitos in December's Springboard Mile at Remington Park). The Hall of Fame trainer has a stalker (Combatant), a front-runner (unbeaten Retirement fund) and a closer (Zing Zang) for the Southwest, the latter two coming from New Orleans.
"They are three very talented 3-year-olds that it will take races like this to sort out," said Asmussen. "But, I think that they obviously deserve this opportunity."
Pletcher sends out Road to Damascus, a $475,000 Pioneerof the Nile colt, for the same connections that won last year's Southwest with One Liner. This one, too, comes from Florida and gets Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in his stakes debut.
Another Oaklawn newcomer is the Romans-trained Seven Trumpets, a last-out second in the mud in Aqueduct's $150,000 Jerome mile Jan. 18. Robby Albarado, a New Orleans veteran, won twice aboard the Morning Line colt last fall over fast surfaces at Churchill Downs, Romans' home track. Seven Trumpets finished behind Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire and ahead of three Pletcher trainees in the Jerome.
My Boy Jack, with the Desormeaux brothers (trainer Keith, jockey Kent), comes from California after a distant third to the unbeaten, Baffert-trained McKinzie in the Jan. 6 Sham at Santa Anita. Before that, the Creative Cause colt made a living on the grass, competing in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.
Completing the field is Ezmosh, whose neck second Jan. 13 at Oaklawn was enhanced when Bravazo repeated in the Risen Star. Brad Cox trains and Gary Stevens rides for Zayat Stables LLC, owner-breeder of American Pharoah.
Post time is 5:10 p.m. for the Southwest, ninth of 10 races on a card starting at 1:05 p.m.
Sports on 02/19/2018