All That Shines Isn’t Necessarily Gold
On opening day before 7,011 at Hollywood Park, trainer Mike Mitchell won a $58,000 race for Jay Manoogian, one of his principal clients. In less than two weeks, Mitchell and Manoogian will have a slightly more intense rooting interest, when Quintons Gold Rush runs in the Kentucky Derby.
Manoogian will be at Churchill Downs on May 1 to see his colt run, but the best Mitchell will be able to do is watch on TV from California. After Quintons Gold Rush ran fourth in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, his majority owner, Satish Sanan, transferred the horse to Steve Asmussen, a leading Midwestern trainer. Asmussen saddled Quintons Gold Rush at Keeneland last Saturday for his victory in the $325,000 Lexington Stakes, a victory that gave the colt enough earnings to qualify for a Derby that is expected to be oversubscribed.
Mitchell, who’ll turn 56 Sunday, has been training for more than 30 years. He has never had a Derby starter, but he’s philosophical about the position he’s in with Quintons Gold Rush.
“If there’s one guy in California rooting for this horse in the Derby, it’s me,” Mitchell said after he won the fifth race for Manoogian with Dell Place and the sixth for J. Michele Kuelbs with Excessed. “I’m pulling for him all the way. If he wins the Derby, I’ll get a lot of satisfaction. I picked him out, and took him quite a way.”
After breaking his maiden in his second start, at Santa Anita in January, Quintons Gold Rush ran fourth in the San Rafael a month before the Santa Anita Derby. Mitchell said that if he had kept the horse, he would have remained stabled at Hollywood Park, where the trainer has a full barn, and shipped to Kentucky for the Lexington. Sanan, who has two other horses with Mitchell, preferred that Quintons Gold Rush be closer to Keeneland for the race. Asmussen gave the horse a five-furlong workout at Churchill Downs five days before the Lexington.
“Right after the Santa Anita Derby, Satish said he wanted to win the Lexington, and I set up the whole thing for him,” Mitchell said. “I even got together with [agent] Ron Anderson to get Jerry Bailey to ride the horse. But I can’t say enough good things about Steve Asmussen. He’s a real classy guy. We’ve talked on the phone about the horse, and he’s been very receptive to my suggestions.”
After the Lexington, Asmussen complimented Mitchell for his role in Quintons Gold Rush’s development. A horse winning a Derby after a change in trainers is not unprecedented. In 1981, Thomas Mellon Evans, the owner of Pleasant Colony, took the colt away from O’Donnell Lee after seven races. Johnny Campo saddled Pleasant Colony for a victory in the Wood Memorial, and then they teamed to win the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. In 2002, War Emblem won the Derby in his first race for trainer Bob Baffert, but that was a different case -- there was an ownership change between War Emblem’s victory in the Illinois Derby and his Kentucky Derby victory.
Asmussen announced Wednesday that Corey Nakatani would ride Quintons Gold Rush in the Derby. Bailey has picked Wimbledon as his Derby mount. Nakatani, who rode Excessed for Mitchell on Wednesday, was aboard Quintons Gold Rush in the San Rafael and Santa Anita Derby.
“Corey knows the horse,” Mitchell said. “If the race sets up right, he’ll sit behind the first [file] of horses, and then when he’s asked to go, he’ll make his move when it counts. Satish bought into this horse specifically to try to win the Derby, so maybe it’ll happen for him. He’s a good horse.”
Besides his two victories, Mitchell also had a horse who finished second on Hollywood Park’s opening card, and his Tunder Ponche ran third in the $78,075 Harry Henson Stakes. With three scratches, including the morning-line favorite Hosco, reducing the Henson field to five, the winner was 5-1 shot Stormin’ Lyon.
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Jockey Julie Krone’s agent, Brian Beach, said that he anticipates she’ll resume riding before the Hollywood Park meet ends July 18. “She’s said she’s progressing, but has not set a timetable,” Beach said. “I know she wants to be ready for Del Mar.” Krone suffered multiple injuries in a spill at Hollywood Park in December, and tried riding one day at Santa Anita in February before returning to the sideline.