Vic Zast

Do the Kentucky Derby prep races create more questions than answers? 

One would say yes if you were anywhere in earshot of the postmortem conversation between the co-owners of Cause to Believe, the beaten 9-5 favorite of the Illinois Derby.

“I know this racetrack, and it’s not anything like the one that he’s been racing on,” said hometown Chicagoan Peter Abruzzo, encouraging a Kentucky Derby try to partner Peter Redekop in the clubhouse at Hawthorne Racecourse. 

“We tried to do something he hasn’t done before. He was too close to the pace,” said Redekop, suggesting that Abruzzo was unrealistic and that they leave the decision about Cause to Believe’s future up to Jerry Hollendorfer, the horse’s conditioner.

Cause to Believe, the winner of six of his previous nine starts, finished third to Sweetnorthernsaint, a gelding from Baltimore, and Mr. Triester, who, at 27-1, was no better than a prayer at post time. His dreary performance made Sweetnorthernsaint appear to be War Emblem.

War Emblem was the only winner of the Illinois Derby to win the Kentucky Derby, and now Sweetnorthernsaint will head off to Louisville with the hope of becoming the second.

With four weeks to go before the Run for the Roses, graded stakes races for 3-year-old horses were held on both coasts, but the one that was run in the middle of the country provided the most speculation.

There was little doubt about the odds-on Brother Derek’s superiority over a field of four hopeful horses in the Grade I, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park in California. Bob and John won the Grade I, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in New York, defeating a depleted cast of wannabes in the slop.

In capturing the first Grade II victory for 39-year-old trainer Michael Trombetta, Sweetnorthernsaint accelerated in the long Hawthorne stretch to win going away.  He drew even with Mr. Triester at the quarter pole and then increased his advantage to 9 1/4 lengths.  His time of 1:49.82, while not anything spectacular, was excusable for a horse that had posted three Beyer figures in the 100s coming into the race. This horse can rumble, and he’s getting better.

“The Kentucky Derby is all about timing,” said Trombetta, as if he knew what he was talking about. In 20 years of training horses, Trombetta has never participated in a Kentucky Derby. “This horse is getting right at the right time,” he announced, departing the scene like a bride on her wedding  night.

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What made Sweetnorthernsaint’s victory all the more impressive is that he broke from the far outside 10 post. “As we rounded the first turn, he had already pricked his ears, both his antennae were up,” said Kent Desormeaux, en route to his third Illinois Derby winning ride.

“The mile and a quarter of the Kentucky Derby is the classic distance, and I think it’s right between his eyes,” Desormeaux said, with a garland of purple surrounding him.  Nevertheless, there’s a big difference in flora between roses and violets.

The Illinois Derby is a race that is more apt to dash the hopes of Kentucky Derby contenders than to bolster them. Chicago is a racing jurisdiction where quality has gone the way of backwards legislation, so Illinois Derby fields are a hodge-podge of out-of-state runners with something to prove. 

The $500,000 purse and Grade II status of the race are incentives to lure horses from racing centers where the competition in traditional Kentucky Derby preps would bury them.