Let’s hear it
Colt emerges as strong contender for the Kentucky Derby
Front-runner Audible wins Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH — Audible established himself as the top 3 year old in Florida and perhaps the leading Kentucky Derby hopeful in the East on Saturday at Gulfstream with a smashing 2 3⁄4 length victory in the $1 million Florida Derby.
The victory was more decisive than the final margin as his eight rivals were spread all over the stretch. Hofburg finished second with Mississippi third as Audible completed a mile and an eighth in 1:49.48.
John Velazquez rode Audible according to the game plan he and trainer Todd Pletcher had plotted. They expected Fountain of Youth winner Promises Fulfilled and Strike Power, second in that race, would hook up in a sprightly duel early and decided to let them go. That’s exactly what happened. The two speedballs scorched the first quarter mile in 21.95, fast for a 6-furlong sprint, suicidal for a 9-furlong two-turn race. By the time the field reached the final turn, both were cooked.
Meanwhile Velazquez didn’t ask Audible to do much more than not lose contact with
them down the backstretch. “I was in the right spot,” the jockey said. They sat in midpack until the turn when Velazquez asked Audible for his best. The New Yorkbred delivered, circling around the tiring pace-setters and past Mississippi, who briefly had inherited the lead.
Audible immediately started to open up on the field with only moderate encouragement from Velazquez. “I kept him busy down the lane,” he said. The jockey said he has no doubt Audible will be able to handle another 220 yards in the mile and a quarter Kentucky Derby. “The farther we went, the better he got.”
The victory was a record fifth for both the jockey and trainer in Gulfstream’s centerpiece stakes. They combined to win last year with Always Dreaming and five weeks later did the same in the Kentucky Derby.
The win guaranteed a chance for an encore. Going into the Florida Derby, Audible had only 10 qualifying points. The conventional wisdom is it will take at least 40 to earn a spot in the Churchill Downs starting gate. The 100 Derby points awarded to the Florida Derby winner erased that obstacle.
Hofburg, who went into the Florida Derby off a maiden win, probably could go to Kentucky if his connections choose. Multiple stakes winner Catholic Boy, sent off as the second choice, needed at least a place to earn his berth in the Derby, but couldn’t deliver. He made a challenging move on the turn but was unable to sustain it and wound up fourth.
Earning the necessary points was never a major concern, according to Pletcher. Audible could have clinched a Derby slot with a second, which was worth 40 points. “If you don’t run well in your final prep, you’re not going to go to the Derby anyway.”
Audible’s Florida Derby triumph to go with his score in the Holy Bull in February gives him the distinction of being the only Kentucky Derby hopeful to win two Derby points races this year. The previous 20 races had been won by 20 different horses.
Audible is likely to be one of at least three Derby starters for Pletcher, who has gone on a roll as the Derby approaches. Two weeks ago, he won the Rebel Stakes in Arkansas with undefeated Magnum Moon. Last Saturday, Pletcher saddled Noble Indy to take the Louisiana Derby.
Pletcher, who clinched his 15th consecutive Gulfstream training title, said he came to Florida uncertain about how his crop of 3 year olds shaped up. But Magnum Moon and Noble Indy brightened his outlook when each won his first two starts, then captured rich stakes.
Audible was a late arrival. He was supposed to run in a December stakes in New York but bad weather forced it to be postponed, so Pletcher brought him to Florida, where he captured the Holy Bull. Now Pletcher goes to Kentucky with one of his strongest hands ever. Still he is characteristically cautious. “Even if you have five, it doesn’t mean you are going to win.”