It’s full steam ahead on the Road to the Kentucky Derby as the first leg of the Championship Series, which awards 50 qualifying points to the winner, began Feb. 15 in the Risen Star Stakes (G2). Connections of the nation’s top 3-year-olds are beginning to finalize their horses’ paths to the Churchill Downs starting gate, including WinStar Farm president, CEO, and racing manager Elliott Walden.
Walden joined BloodHorse assistant news editor Sean Collins on the Feb. 17 edition of the BloodHorse Monday podcast to discuss Sam F. Davis Stakes winner John Hancock and also shared plans for other top sophomores Tappan Street , River Thames , and Patch Adams .
BloodHorse Monday is a new, hour-long podcast hosted by BloodHorse in partnership with Louisville, Ky.-based radio host Louie Rabaut. The show streams live every Monday at 2 p.m. ET on BloodHorse’s YouTube page and can be accessed afterward on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, ESPN Louisville+ and espnlouisville.com. The show also airs in Louisville on ESPN 680/105.7, as well as other stations throughout the country.
Walden shared that current plans are for John Hancock to bypass the March 8 Tampa Bay Derby (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs, where he won the Sam F. Davis, in favor of participating in one final prep race for the Kentucky Derby (G1) at the end of March or early April. Walden said he prefers not to chase points to get in the Derby starting gate, but rather make sure you go to the Derby with a good chance.
“I’m a believer that a horse is going to take you there,” Walden said. “Because we’ve had success there (winning the Derby in 2010 with Super Saver and 2018 with Justify ), we don’t want to just run to run. We want to show up with horses that can run well.”
John Hancock, who WinStar co-owns with CHC, had a late start to his career with a Tampa maiden victory Jan. 8 followed by his Feb. 8 Sam F. Davis win.
“I think we’re going to find another race in that last round of preps to see how he develops and give him a chance to catch his breath a little bit because he did run back fairly quickly there,” Walden said. “He did put in a big effort. We’ll just wait and see where we’ll land with him.”
John Hancock outduels Owen Almighty to win the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs
Being patient with John Hancock may be the secret recipe to his success. Walden discussed how the son of Constitution was a “middle-of-the-road” type horse early on in his training and that he blossomed when the ownership and trainer Brad Cox backed off and let him develop some more.
“Brad said, ‘I like this horse, I think he has some talent, he has a good way of moving, he just hasn’t put it all together yet. Let’s send him home and let him grow up,'” Walden recalled. “That’s what we did.
“When he came back, he was a bigger, stronger horse. He had put it together mentally. When I saw him train over at Payson Park in the winter, I could see a difference in him. Just his whole demeanor to train, he was very enthusiastic about it and wanted to go out there every day and perform. He was confident in himself.”
That confidence put John Hancock firmly on the Kentucky Derby trail with 20 points. With 40 points typically considered as the comfort zone to qualify for the Derby, he would need to finish in the top three in his final prep to guarantee a spot.
Another colt with a similar game plan is the Cox-trained Tappan Street, who WinStar co-owns with CHC and Cold Press Racing. After a Gulfstream Park maiden victory Dec. 28, he ran a game second to Burnham Square in his two-turn debut in the Feb. 1 Holy Bull Stakes (G3).
That effort earned the Into Mischief colt 10 qualifying points, likely leaving his Derby eligibility up to a top-two performance in the March 29 Florida Derby (G1).
“Either he’s going to run first or second and earn his way to the Derby in that spot, or he’s not,” Walden said. “We’re not going to run him back in the Fountain of Youth in four weeks and then run again trying to get 10 points here and 20 points there to get in the Derby. We’re going to try and take one big swing at it and do what’s best for a horse that’s young and developing.”
Meanwhile, the undefeated River Thames will likely make two more starts as he points to the Kentucky Derby. The Todd Pletcher trainee has visually impressed with a six-furlong maiden score at Gulfstream Jan. 11 followed by a one-turn-mile allowance victory Feb. 1. The 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) March 1 will serve as the proper introduction to two turns for the son of Maclean’s Music before a potential final prep at 1 1/8 miles.
River Thames wins an allowance optional claimer at Gulfstream Park
“It’s a little different scenario just because he has not had any experience around two turns,” Walden said. “A lot of it depends on how he runs in the Fountain of Youth. We felt like a mile-and-a-sixteenth was the right next step for him.”
Despite John Hancock not returning to Tampa for the Tampa Bay Derby, the race is a leading candidate to be the next stop for Cox-trained stablemate Patch Adams. After a sensational maiden victory in which he just missed the seven-furlong track record at Churchill Downs in November, a bad break led to him experiencing kickback for the first time in his career and finishing fourth.
“The ground broke out from underneath him leaving there and he got further back than he wanted,” Walden said. “We have to see him run again and get more experience. It wasn’t a bad race…I think he learned a lot from it.”
During the podcast, Walden also discussed WinStar stallion Constitution—sire of John Hancock—the farm’s new stallion offerings in Cogburn , Timberlake , and Heartland , as well as WinStar’s relationship with CHC.
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