There’s no Smarty Jones at this yr’s Kentucky Derby. No horse that can put Philadelphia on its proverbial saddle and take the whole area for a wild experience.
However in Pine Grove, Pa., a few hours west of Billy Penn’s hat — nearer to Studying than the Studying Terminal Market — there may be hope {that a} Pennsylvania-bred horse will make a critical run for the roses.
Angel of Empire, bred at Pine Grove’s Blackstone farm in Schuylkill County, is the seventh Pennsylvania-bred horse to run on the Kentucky Derby since Smarty received it in 2004. 5 of the latest six completed tenth or worse. Quick and Correct, in 2017, was the final Pa.-bred to run the Derby. He completed seventeenth.
However there’s optimism round Angel of Empire, one in every of 4 hopefuls educated by Brad Cox.
» READ MORE: Kentucky Derby odds and publish positions: Pennsylvania horse amongst favorites
Angel adopted his second-place end on the Smarty Jones Stakes on New 12 months’s Day with victories on the Risen Star Stakes (Feb. 18) and the Arkansas Derby (April 1). He opened at 8-1 and can run out of the No. 14 publish. Cox known as it a “good draw” and stated he already has an thought of the route jockey Flavien Prat will take.
“Flavien will be capable of break working and get a great spot mid-pack. That’s what I’m envisioning,” Cox stated after Monday’s draw. “Jace’s Highway [another horse trained by Cox] will most likely be extra forwardly positioned versus Angel of Empire. Hopefully he can get himself up into the combination.”
This shall be Prat’s sixth Derby. He’s hit the board 4 occasions, together with a successful experience aboard Nation Home after the disqualification of Most Safety in 2019.
Dennis Albaugh, proprietor of Albaugh Household Stables in Iowa, purchased Angel of Empire for $70,000 in 2021. His star horse collected $1,026,375 in earnings in 2023.
“I feel a Pennsylvania bred was one of many causes perhaps it introduced much less,” Jason Loutsch, supervisor for Albaugh Stables, informed the Louisville Courier Journal lately. “Perhaps individuals may not have checked out as a lot as we did and it simply type of slipped via the cracks, we felt.”
Cox’s different three horses within the Derby — Hit Present, Jace’s Highway, and Verifying — have been bred in Kentucky. However Angel of Empire, the mutt from Pennsylvania, is probably the most extremely regarded.
He’s “gotten higher the extra he’s accomplished and the longer the space has gotten,” Cox stated. “He’s a horse that was meant to be a extremely good 3-year-old versus a extremely quick 2-year-old.”
Pennsylvania-breds within the Derby since 1966
(14 begins, 2 wins, 1 second, 1 third)
2017: Quick and Correct (seventeenth)
2016: Mor Spirit (tenth)
2016: Tom’s Prepared (twelfth)
2013: Falling Sky (nineteenth)
2007: Laborious Spun (2nd)
2007: Nice Hunter (thirteenth)
2004: Smarty Jones (1st)
2000: Excessive Yield (fifteenth)
2000: Hal’s Hope (sixteenth)
1997: Shammy Davis (twelfth)
1992: Lil E. Tee (1st)
1985: Rhoman Rule (ninth)
1983: Parfaitement (sixteenth)
1974: Agitate (third)
New Jersey-breds within the Derby since 1966
(3 begins, 1 third)
2017: Irish Conflict Cry (tenth)
1992: Dance Flooring (third)
1968: Jig Time (sixth)
This text incorporates data from the Related Press.
» READ MORE: An ideal return at Parx for Smarty Jones