Empire Maker Alters Derby Plans for Some

The 129th Kentucky Derby, which will be run in less than three weeks, isn’t likely to force Churchill Downs into using its 20-horse maximum rule.

Last year’s top 2-year-olds -- Vindication, Toccet and Sky Mesa -- were sidelined by injury even before the serious in-fighting in this year’s Derby prep races began, and now Empire Maker, winner of Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, has emerged as a heavy favorite, the kind that sends rival trainers in more sensible directions.

“I’ve got a good horse,” said trainer Lisa Lewis, who trains Kissin Saint, the third-place finisher in the Wood, “but he could run the race of his life and still finish third in Kentucky.”

Of the seven horses that Empire Maker beat in the $750,000 Wood, only the runner-up, Funny Cide, is headed for the Derby, which will be run May 3. Peace Rules, Empire Maker’s stablemate in trainer Bobby Frankel’s barn, won Saturday’s Blue Grass at Keeneland, by a bigger margin but in a slower time, and the two horses immediately behind him, Brancusi and Offlee Wild, are also Derby probables.

They’ll be joined by Buddy Gil, Indian Express, Kafwain and Atswhatimtalknbout, the first four horses across the line in the Santa Anita Derby.

Also Kentucky Derby-bound are Sir Cherokee, Ten Most Wanted, Fund Of Fund, Outta Here and Supah Blitz. Sir Cherokee was a winner at 56-1 in Saturday’s Arkansas Derby, Ten Most Wanted and Fund Of Fund finished 1-2 in the Illinois Derby, Outta Here won the United Emirates Derby and Supah Blitz is a Gulfstream Park stakes winner who might be sold before the Kentucky Derby.

The Coolmore Lexington Stakes, which will be run at Keeneland this Saturday, may also produce a Derby horse or two. Ministers Wild Cat, who was scratched from the Santa Anita Derby because of a bruised hoof, and Ocean Terrace, who bled in the same race, are probable for the Lexington.

In recent years, horsemen have taken Churchill Downs’ 20-horse rule to the limit. When more than 20 seek to run, the track invokes its money rule, which determines the field by the most earnings in graded stakes races. Twenty horses haven’t actually run in the Derby in 19 years, but four times since then, including last year, 20 horses were entered before the final fields were reduced by scratches.

While Frankel and his jockey, Jerry Bailey, were winning another stake Sunday, the $113,300 Jenny Wiley, with Sea Of Showers at Keeneland, Empire Maker was flown from New York to Louisville and arrived at Churchill Downs by mid-afternoon. The son of the late Unbridled, Empire Maker has three wins, one second and one third in five starts.

Peace Rules will be transported by van today from Keeneland to Churchill Downs, a trip of about 70 miles. “Empire Maker is battle-tested,” Frankel said. “He’s had four races at a mile and a quarter.”

After watching a tape of the stretch run, Barclay Tagg, the trainer of Funny Cide, who lost the Wood by a half-length, suggested that a foul claim from his jockey, Jose Santos, might have been in order. “[Empire Maker] hit my horse solid,” Tagg said. “He hit us hard enough to knock my horse off stride. But nobody said anything. You would have figured that for all that money, Jose would have hollered a little bit.”

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Trainer Jim Cassidy’s second stakes win of the weekend at Santa Anita came a little bit easier than the first. Less than 24 hours after Steelaninch won the La Puente by a nose before surviving an inquiry, Star Vega prevailed by a neck over Makeup Artist in the $150,000 Providencia Stakes Sunday. Star Vega, ridden by Mike Smith, rallied along the rail and completed the 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:47.89. ... Crafty C.T., whose last stakes victory was in the San Rafael at Santa Anita in March of 2001, had to settle for second behind wire-to-wire winner Smooth Jazz in the $250,000 Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Keeneland. Smooth Jazz, ridden by Edgar Prado, won by three lengths in 1:21.73 for the seven furlongs.

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Staff writer Bob Mieszerski contributed to this report.