Oh, brothers

Desormeauxs take Grade 3 Southwest by storm

The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen SOUTHWEST WINNER: Jockey Kent Desormeaux celebrates aboard My Boy Jack Monday at Oaklawn Park after winning the Grade 3 $500,000 Grade Southwest Stakes.
The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen SOUTHWEST WINNER: Jockey Kent Desormeaux celebrates aboard My Boy Jack Monday at Oaklawn Park after winning the Grade 3 $500,000 Grade Southwest Stakes.

As Michael Corleone said to wife Kay regarding a mobster's U.S. Senate testimony in the second "Godfather" film, it's between the brothers.

Trainer Keith and jockey Kent Desormeaux have another horse on the road to the Triple Crown, My Boy Jack setting his sights for Churchill Downs after prancing home by 4 1/2 lengths in Monday's Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest at Oaklawn Park.

A stakes-winning grass horse at 2, the bargain-basement son of Creative Cause showed greater dimensions in the Southwest, only his third start on dirt. Desormeaux brought him east after clashing with the unbeaten McKinzie when third in the Sham Stakes Jan. 6 at Santa Anita. Bob Baffert, McKinzie's trainer, awaited at Oaklawn with the last-out Smarty Jones winner, but whereas "McKinzie is a monster" (Keith Desormeaux' words), Mourinho revealed himself mortal.

With Kent Desormeaux brilliantly saving ground, My Boy Jack picked off horses one by one after laying eighth midway on the final turn. He went by a tiring Mourinho in the stretch and got clear of a traffic jam behind him, one that resulted in a stewards' inquiry but no change in the official order.

"For him to run well on dirt, we were ecstatic," said Keith Desormeaux. "I told (Kent) the horse would run well on dirt." Working well at Santa Anita last week against stablemate Sonneteer, a last-out Oaklawn stakes winner, "he tipped his hand," said Keith.

Said Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner whose 2016 Preakness victory aboard Exaggerator came for his brother: "It was a complete turnaround effort from his last start. Today he was quite calm and let me ride him, and that was the biggest difference. He didn't waste any energy going around the racetrack, so he flew home. Great training job by Keith."

My Boy Jack, carrying 119 pounds, went a mile and sixteenth in 1:46.00 and paid $19.60, $8.20 and $5.20. A $20,000 Keeneland sales yearling, My Boy Jack collected 10 points and totals 12 from two preps for a possible start in the May 5 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

"The best part about the race is he's going to a Derby," said Kent Desormeaux. It may be the Arkansas Derby ($1 million Grade 1 on April 14), but he's Derby bound."

Keith Desormeaux said he would consider running My Boy Jack in Oaklawn's Grade 2 $900,000 Rebel March 17, with 50 points to the winner, but would prefer not running in both the Rebel and Arkansas Derby (100 points to the winner).

Combatant, one of three entered by Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, finished second for the third consecutive race, 2 1/2 lengths ahead of the Wayne Lukas-trained Grade 1 winner Sporting Chance. Mourinho, the 6-5 favorite, was fourth, his task tougher than when winning the one-mile Smarty Jones by 3 1/4 lengths in front-running style Jan. 15.

"We didn't get the easy lead like we did last time," said Lake Hamilton High graduate Drayden Van Dyke, keeping the mount on Mourinho. "I will blame it on the track -- he was swimming through it."

Sporting Chance, making his first start winning the Hopeful at Saratoga on Labor Day, shook off the rust with a third-place finish, earning two Derby points. Lukas shrugged off a midstretch snarl in which Combatant, from outside, and Mourinho, inside, shut off his Tiznow colt. Stewards pored over the replay for several minutes before leaving the order intact.

"They both came over at the same time and put (the stewards) in a position they didn't know what to do," Lukas said. Otherwise, he said, "we can build on this. His upside is great."

Sports on 02/20/2018

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