UNDER an aggressive ride from jockey Abel Cedillo, Thousand Words won the Shared Belief Stakes in Del Mar last Saturday and could still be a leading candidate for the Kentucky Derby.

Breaking from the inside, he set an easy opening quarter-mile in 23.89secs before Mike Smith on the favourite Honor A. P. made a surprise early move after the leader and went second to chase Thousand Words through three-quarters of a mile in 1m 12.33secs, but he found the leader still going strong.

Thousand Words responded to urging from Cedillo and raced to victory over the mile and half a furlong on a fast track in 1m 43.85secs.

Cedillo reported that Bob Baffert had “just told me to warm him up real well, then get him out of there. Then see what happens. He broke well, and I saw I could take the lead, so I did. He was going along there steady, steady, steady. Then we got it done.”

It was a step back for Honor A. P. from his performance in the Santa Anita Derby, though he ran on to take second.

“He ran well, but we’re disappointed he didn’t win. This distance is too short for him, too. Just not his day,” said Mike Smith.

Cezanne, Baffert’s other runner, finished last of four starters though beaten by just a length and a half.

“The real Thousand Words showed up today. His whole mind changed. His colour has changed. He had soured out on me, but we got him going the right way. I think he earned his way to the Derby,” Baffert said.

Thousand Words, a son of Pioneerof The Nile, picked up 50 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby to add to his overall tally of 83, and ranks him seventh on the leaderboard.

Honor A. P. is in third with 140 points, trailing only Tiz The Law (272) and Authentic (200).

Bing Crosby

Collusion Illusion, already one of the top three-year-old sprinters on the West Coast, won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar. The son of Twirling Candy closed from behind a blistering pace and held off a wide rally from Lexitonian to post a nose victory, his first Grade 1. The colt is trained by Mark Glatt and the victory was jockey Flavien Prat’s fifth in the Bing Crosby in the past six years.

Also in Del Mar, Gary and Mary West, Bob Baffert and Abel Cedillo notched -up another Grade 1 win at the Del Mar with the filly Fighting Mad, who made all in the $250,500 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Sunday.

Fighting Mad held off Ollie’s Candy by a half-length in a time on the fast track of 1m 43.46secs.

Both the Wests’ stars, Maximum Security and Fighting Mad, are by New Year’s Day, who won the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for them and now stands at stud in Japan.

Parx cancels

PARX Racing’s official confirmed this week that its two Grade 1 events for three-year-olds, the Pennsylvania Derby plus the Cotillion Stakes for fillies, both of which were originally planned for September 26th, have been cancelled for this year due to the coronavirus and with the Kentucky Derby now in early September.