As winners do, especially those trained by Bob Baffert in a Kentucky Derby prep race, Mourinho heaped praise upon himself in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Monday at Oaklawn Park.
How many times in recent years have Oaklawn patrons seen a Baffert trainee ship across country for his first race outside California and make it all look so simple? For Mourinho, the Smarty Jones also marked his first race around two turns, a necessary assignment for any Derby prospect but one that many Baffert stars handle with ease.
Mourinho could have been named The Factor or Cupid -- or for that matter, American Pharoah. All were Oaklawn stakes winners for the Hall of Fame trainer, whose first Smarty Jones victory gave him 13 in Derby preps here since 2010.
Lake Hamilton High School graduate Drayden Van Dyke, motivated both to stay aboard a Derby hopeful for a trainer whose horses have won the big one four times and also to succeed in his hometown, fit snugly in the saddle. Mourinho, refitted with blinkers, bounced out on top, no surprise, and got away with a 48-second opening half.
Van Dyke then gave his colt what can simply be called the American Pharoah move, letting out a notch, or something, entering the second turn. As described here before, this move is almost imperceptible, certainly not requiring force, and almost always decisive. Four lengths ahead at the top of the stretch, Mourinho was in a position, like Secretariat by 31 in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, as the late Chic Anderson called it, "in a position almost impossible to catch."
Van Dyke tapped his colt once left handed at the three-sixteenths pole -- just to keep his mind on business -- and then showed the stick with each hand in the short run to the sixteenth-pole finish line. Mourinho jogged home by 3 1/4 lengths, his fast-rated mile in 1:37.25, his holiday business in Arkansas successful.
Then one remembered that the Smarty Jones represented class relief for Mourinho, whom Baffert scratched from the recent Grade 3 Sham Stakes in California rather than butt heads with an undefeated stablemate. Sham winner McKinzie is No. 6 on Louisville-based Horse Racing Nation's top-50 list of Derby contenders but three spots behind the Baffert-trained Solomini, Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up to HRN No. 1 choice Good Magic.
Mourinho ranks No. 25 in the HRN poll, highest among horses seen at Oaklawn on opening weekend, but don't pencil him in yet for Arkansas Derby gardenias, much less Kentucky Derby roses. Though a son of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver should stretch out nicely, who knows how he responds in a larger field and especially if hooked for the lead? American Pharoah, though closer to a finished product in the spring than one expects to see, gained valuable experience at Oaklawn first on a sloppy track (Rebel) and then in passing a horse (Arkansas Derby) en route to the Triple Crown in 2015.
HRN's Oaklawn leader is No. 16 Sporting Chance, the Grade 1 Hopeful winner for Wayne Lukas and pointing to a Feb. 19 seasonal debut in the Grade 3 Southwest. Sired by two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow and produced by a Candy Ride mare, Sporting Chance makes a racing fan look forward to his return, which may come against Mourinho. Gary Stevens, with whom Lukas has won the Kentucky Derby twice, worked the colt last week, though Luis Saez is listed as its race-day rider.
Back to the Smarty Jones, in which runner-up Combatant and third-place finisher Tap Daddy distinguished themselves for Steve Asmussen after the Hall of Famer's Principe Guilherme ran second in Fair Grounds' Grade 3 Le Comte on Saturday. Combatant finished eight lengths in front of his stablemate, indicating he gave a winning effort that was overmatched. Combatant, a good second also in Remington's Springboard Mile, is No. 31 and Tap Daddy, making a nice turf-to-dirt transition in the Smarty Jones, No. 32 in HRN's poll.
No. 26 is the Asmussen-trained New York Central, a Tapit colt who finished second in the slower of two one-mile Oaklawn preps Saturday. Farther down the list at No. 70 is Bravazo, an Awesome Again colt trained by Lukas who outdueled the Brad Cox-trained Ezmosh at Oaklawn Saturday in 1:37.74. Ezmosh, nine lengths clear of the third-place horse, will be a short-priced favorite next time.
As would-be Derby horses sort themselves out on the road to the Triple Crown, expect the pecking order of contenders to change week by week. Getting to Louisville on the first Saturday in May is almost as difficult as winning the race.
Sports on 01/19/2018