West Virginia Derby field taking shape
By BILL MOONEY, Special to The ReviewThe biggest day of the year for thoroughbred racing in West Virginia's northern panhandle is quickly approaching. On Saturday afternoon, August 2, the 39th running of the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby will take place at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort.
Joe Narcavish, the racing secretary at Mountaineer, anticipates a field that will likely include the Grade 2 Illinois Derby winner, Recapturetheglory, along with contenders from the stables of trainers Steve Asmussen, Nick Zito and Todd Pletcher - all of whom have won Triple Crown events in recent years.
"Both Asmussen and Zito have prior victories in the West Virginia Derby, as well," said Narcavish. "Asmussen has won it twice - with Real Dandy in 2005 and with Zanjero in 2007. Zito sent in Sir Shackleton to win our 'Derby in 2004. They1re very aware of the distance, 1 1/8 miles, what sort of horse is needed to be successful."
Asmussen, who leads all North American trainers in victories (365 through July 21) and purse earnings (over $17 million) in 2008, has nominated a pair of colts to this year1s West Virginia Derby.
His likely participant in the race will be Z Fortune, who was a 2 3/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Lecomte Handicap at Fair Grounds in New Orleans in January, and also placed in the Arkansas Derby and Ohio Derby, both of which are Grade 2 events.
Zito, a Hall of Fame conditioner who registered his second career triumph in the Belmont Stakes this past June with Da1 Tara, has nominated four colts to the West Virginia Derby.
One of them is Coal Play, who is a son of the 2003 Horse of the Year, Mineshaft. Last December, Coal Play finished second in the What a Pleasure Stakes at Calder Race Course, and more recently he was 9 1/4-length winner in allowance company at Monmouth Park.
Pletcher, who has received the Eclipse Award as North America's champion trainer each of the last four years, has yet to add a West Virginia Derby victory to his resume. But Pletcher has knocked on the door several times, finishing second with Pollard1s Vision in '04 and with Magna Graduate in '05, and third with Colita in 2003.
Atoned, a Pletcher trainee who finished second in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct last November and in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby this past March, appears to be Mountaineer-bound. In his most recent start, Atoned again finished second, this time in the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth.
Louie Roussel III, who trains and (with Ron Lamarque) co-owns Recapturetheglory, has never before run a horse in the West Virginia Derby.
Back in 1988, the Roussel/Lamarque team campaigned Risen Star, who won the
Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and was honored as North American's champion
three-year-old.
On the first Saturday in May of this year, Recapturetheglory went
postward at odds of 49-1 in the Kentucky Derby - and was third with only an
eighth of a mile remaining, before fading to fifth behind the victorious Big
Brown.
Recapturetheglory's most recent start came in the Grade 3 Northern
Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs. In that race, he was the favorite at
nearly even-money, but encountered a traffic jam with a quarter-mile
remaining and finished fourth.
But Recapturetheglory is capable of winning a graded, nine-furlong event
in wire-to-wire fashion - he did it in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne on
April 5. At Mountaineer, Recapturetheglory could be the front-running
contender everyone else has to catch.
In the '07 West Virginia Derby, Zanjero, the 3-1 second choice, took the
lead on the far turn, then withheld a relentless challenge during the final
three-eighths of a mile by the longshot, Bwana Bull, to prevail by a nose
under jockey Shaun Bridgmohan.
Zanjero's final time, 1:53.04, was considerably slower than the stakes
and track record of 1:46.29, set by Soto in '03. But there's an old saying
among thoroughbred trainers, that "time only matters when you're in jail."
Zanjero1s effort was strong enough to gain a $450,000 winner's share of the
West Virginia Derby purse.
The West Virginia Derby is the anchoring event of Mountaineer's
year-round racing season, and is also the only race in the state ever to
achieve graded status. Post time for the nine-race 'Derby card will be 2
p.m.
