Old Forester Bourbon Turf

Classic Stakes (Grade 1)

Derby City Distaff (Grade 1)

Churchill Downs Stakes (Grade 1)

A FEW minutes after the penultimate card at the Keeneland spring meeting was run Brendan Walsh stopped to chat over a well-earned end-of-day beverage about how things were going at the short Lexington stand.

“We started out pretty well then cooled off here the last few weeks,” Walsh said. “You never want to do that but sometimes that means things will pick up again. That could be good because we’re loaded for next week, loaded.”

Walsh’s prediction proved prescient from the start of Derby Week. He won five races in five days, starting with a score for longtime patron Patricia Moseley with her homebred three-year-old colt Curbstone in a $120,000 10-furlong dirt maiden Tuesday and capping with a victory by Godolphin homebred Santin in Saturday’s $1 million Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes on the grass.

“What a week; very proud of the horses and the team, and happy for the owners,” Walsh said while waiting for his runner Rising Empire to arrive in the paddock in the race after the Derby.

Santin provided the highlight with his determined victory over Mira Mission in the nine-furlong Turf Classic, the first graded stakes victory for the four-year-old Distorted Humor colt after three close tries. He and jockey Tyler Gaffalione won by a neck after a three-wide move around the turn.

“We’ve thought this was a special horse and I think we’re starting to see the start of something big here,” Walsh said. “He’s still just a baby; he’s only had six starts. And he’s in here running against ones with 10, 12, 15 starts.

“We were letting him come along at his own pace, but we gave him some help to focus with the blinkers today. The people down at my barn have brought him along. I just happen to be there.”

Brown graded double

Chad Brown’s stable enjoyed a productive Derby Day, going 1-2 in the Grade 2 Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Mile with Peter Brant’s Speak Of The Devil and In Italian and winning the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile with the unbeaten Grade 1 winner Jack Christopher for Brant’s White Birch Farm, Coolmore Stud, Jim Bakke and Gerry Isbister.

Jack Christopher, scratched with an injury before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, made his first start since winning the Grade 1 Champagne also at a mile last October at Belmont Park. The son of Munnings rolled to a three and three-quarter-length victory in 1m 34.81secs, showing that he’d be a major player in the three-year-old division well before the topsy-turvy Derby was run.

“I had a really good feel, here on Derby Day, I asked a lot of him,” Brown said. “I chose this race because I wanted him to run against his own age group, and I didn’t want to sprint the horse.

“He’s a super-talented race horse and if we can keep him on the track, we’ll see a lot of great things from him. This horse reminds me a lot of Ghostzapper. I was fortunate to work with that horse, he moves about the same as him, and that one had a few rough patches as well. … It’s a wonderful victory, very gratifying, but it’s bittersweet that we got him to the first Saturday in May, which we had been thinking about since he debuted at Saratoga.

“To get him here on the first Saturday in May, and to get him to the winner’s circle, it’ll always be in the back of my mind what could have been.”

The Derby Day card also featured a pair of Grade 1 events at seven furlongs and both went to winners who improved to three-for-three at Churchill.

Juddmonte homebred Obligatory led off with victory in the $750,000 Derby City Distaff, closing from last under Jose Ortiz to outrun Four Graces and favoured Just One Time.

Last year’s North American champion male sprinter Jackie’s Warrior also stayed perfect at the Downs two races later when he rolled to a four-length win over the Brown-trained Reinvestment Risk in the $750,000 Churchill Downs Stakes.

Three Diamonds Farm’s and Deuce Greathouse’s Stolen Base overcame a near stumble on the first turn to score a mild upset over Irish-bred Balnikhov in the $500,000 Grade 3 American Turf.