After making an impressive winning debut at Churchill Downs on a rescheduled Kentucky Derby Day last season, Essential Quality has found the Bluegrass to his liking from that first start to his final preparations for this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
Godolphin homebred Essential Quality, a Kentucky-bred, has done most of his racing and most of his training in the state where he was foaled thanks to champion trainer Brad Cox's base in Kentucky, a circuit providing a variety of maiden race options in September at Churchill, and a little bit of luck in terms of the scheduling of the 2020 Breeders' Cup World Championships.
He's one of a number of horses in this year's Derby field with connections who found the rejuvenated Kentucky circuit provides plenty of opportunity to prepare for the spring classics.
Of Essential Quality's five career starts, four have come at either Churchill Downs or Keeneland. Trainer Brad Cox doesn't mind sending a top young horse to Saratoga Race Course in the summer—one of his other Derby hopefuls, Caddo River, made his debut in Upstate New York. But he also knows that less travel for a young horse can allow a familiar atmosphere to develop.
After that maiden victory at Churchill, Essential Quality would close out his juvenile season with a pair of grade 1 victories at Keeneland in the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Of course the schedule just happened to come up with the Breeders' Cup in Essential Quality's backyard, but the son of Tapit took full advantage to nail down a championship.
This season after one successful road trip to Oaklawn Park to open the year—a 4 1/4-length victory in the Southwest Stakes (G3); Essential Quality would wrap up his prep races before the spring classics on Keeneland's familiar ground. Essential Quality shadowed early leader Highly Motivated early in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) before edging that one by a neck at the wire of that 1 1/8-mile test April 21.
Essential Quality will attempt to become the first Blue Grass winner to win the Derby since Strike the Gold in 1991.
"It can be nothing but an advantage being here at Churchill," Cox said. "All of his works leading up to the Breeders' Futurity and the Breeders' Cup were here. So this is really his home base. He's obviously won three races at Keeneland and it's kind of his home away from home.
"I do think of Churchill as his home base, having breezed there so many times. It's nothing but a good thing as far as I'm concerned with him having so many spins around the Churchill oval."
Cox also likes that Essential Quality has had a race over the surface, a debut maiden win Sept. 5, 2020, going six furlongs. In 2013 Churchill took over the September race dates that had previously been offered by Turfway Park, and with historical horse racing at Churchill Downs satellite Derby City Gaming thriving in recent years, Essential Quality's debut maiden race offered a $98,670 purse.
In November last year Cox sent out his other Derby hopeful, Mandaloun , to an allowance win after the son of Into Mischief posted a debut maiden win at the Keeneland fall meet.
Speaking of Turfway, from last year to this year that track enjoyed the biggest change in terms of its viability as a Derby path. With Churchill Downs Inc.'s purchase of Turfway in late 2019, the track has been richly rewarded on the Road to the Kentucky Derby with the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes now carrying qualifying points of 10-4-2-1 for the top four finishers while the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) is a major prep with 100-40-20-10 to the top four finishers.
With those points in place, as well as a significantly upgraded purse structure for its racing overall, Turfway has caught horsemen's attention as a possible path. This year trainer Wesley Ward took full advantage, campaigning Like the King at the Northern Kentucky track through the winter and landing a spot in the Derby due to a runner-up finish in the Battaglia and a victory in the Jeff Ruby.
"It's been proven in the past that a horse can come off the synthetic and win the Derby with Animal Kingdom," Ward said of the 2011 Derby winner who raced on dirt for the first time on the first Saturday in May after racing on turf and synthetic surfaces, including a victory in the major Turfway prep, then called the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes (G3).
The Spiral awarded Derby points on a 50-20-10-5 scale that year but it would be cut to a 20-8-4-2 race from 2018-2020. With the purchase of the track by CDI, the race saw its points increased to the major prep level this year.
"With CDI buying the track, it's certainly been great for me because it's my winter home track," Ward said. "Going forward any horse that runs well on dirt but looks like they move equally well over the dirt, I'll keep them here under my thumb rather than go to another jurisdiction because I just think it's easier on a horse in the winter time rather than going south and taking on Todd (Pletcher) and those other top trainers in Florida."
M Racing Group's Like the King is a son of classic winner Palace Malice. He has earned a second- and third-place finish in his two starts on dirt.
Beyond the competition difference and his belief in racing and training on synthetic surfaces, Ward thinks that horses benefit by going through the changes in season going from training to racing and in racing.
"I really have had a lot of success with horses staying through the course of winter here. They get all woolly and now this time of year they start shedding. It's sort of a natural progression of nature. I think it benefits them, especially my 2-year-olds and even keeping my yearlings to 2-year-olds right here."
Brian Klatsky, co-founder of the racing syndicate that campaigns Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G3) runner-up Hidden Stash, is thrilled with the improved opportunity for horses, including young horses, on the Kentucky circuit. Last year Hidden Stash made his debut at Ellis Park, scored his maiden win at Keeneland, and won an allowance race at Churchill. Trained by Vicki Oliver, Hidden Stash enters the Derby off a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass, which most recently produced a Derby winner in 2007 with Street Sense .
"In Kentucky the purse money is great. What they're doing at Churchill for Derby week is sensational; we're looking at $118,000 maiden races. It's just fantastic," Klatsky said. "One of the things that we've always gotten excited about with BBN is the Kentucky Downs meet. We've had some success there the last couple years and the purses there are great.
"I know everyone's concerned about the future of the sport, but with the historical horse racing in the state of Kentucky, and what we're seeing tracks do with technology to bring in new bettors, I do think with those things in place, the purse structure can continue to grow and keep the sport vibrant."
Hidden Stash also received his early training in Versailles, Ky., from Becky Maker. Klatsky, who works with young basketball players, thinks reduced travel can help a young horse develop.
"I think anytime you can play on your home court or run on your own track, there's an advantage," Klatsky said. "Whether it's a four-hour ship or a 12-hour ship, it definitely impacts you. I know from the basketball world, if I put the kids on a plane and expect them to get off the plane and play that night or the next day, it definitely impacts performance. With the horse, I think it's the same thing."
