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McGaughey happy with Orb's status as early favorite
"I try to lay as low as I can, but I'm really enjoying being here and every aspect of it. It hasn't bothered me at all," he said. McGaughey was asked to compare his mind-set this year as compared to 1989, when he was preparing heavily favored Easy Goer for the Derby, in which he finished second behind the Charlie Whittingham-trained Sunday Silence. "I think I have a lot more confidence in myself than at that time -- not that I didn't have confidence," McGaughey remarked. "When Easy Goer came here, he couldn't lose, so I had to go up against that. I knew who I was going up against. I was 37 or something, and he (Whittingham) probably already won that many Grade 1s that year. I feel good where we are and am glad we're here and hope down the road we're here a lot more times." Mylute visited the track during the Derby and Oaks training session, deviating from his usual 5:45 a.m. (EDT) routine, so he could school in the starting gate Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. With jockey Rosie Napravnik watching intently from the half-mile gap, the Louisiana Derby runner-up jogged and galloped under exercise rider Maurice Sanchez. "He went to the gate and practiced over there so that he's calm, cool and collected come Derby Day," trainer Tom Amoss said. "He did his normal gallop and his normal jog before and after that. It was a straightforward day other than stopping at the gate and that went without event." Todd Quast, general manager of co-owner GoldMark Farm, was also on hand for the work. Quast helped to pick out Mylute at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton July Sale. "He was a very strong, imposing individual, even as a yearling," Quast said. "He had the most fluid walk that I had seen at that sale. He was a first-year Midnight Lute and everyone's thinking those are going to be sprinters but I always felt he was a sprinter by default. He was by Real Quiet and bred to be a route horse, the mare was a route horse, so that didn't bother me. "That sale is about individuals and he was a standout individual. We paid $150,000 for him but I thought it was a good buy and now it seems like a great buy." Quast spent most of the 1990s working as an assistant trainer to D. Wayne Lukas and broke Kentucky Derby winners Grindstone (1996) and Charismatic (1999). "These five weeks are so important," Quast said of the final days leading up to the Kentucky Derby. "You have to be as good as you can be. If we lose it's not because we didn't have a good five weeks of training. "From the Louisiana Derby forward this horse has been doing so well. He ran in the Louisiana Derby on Saturday, shipped on Sunday, arrived at Churchill on Monday, jogged Tuesday, galloped the next few days, and then that Sunday we gave him a half(-mile breeze) because he was tearing the barn down. That was only eight days after the race."
Thus, Plesa won't give jockey Elvis Trujillo detailed instructions on how to ride Itsmyluckyday. "I'll tell Elvis, 'Take what they give you. Good luck and have a safe trip,'" Plesa said. Black Onyx galloped a little more than 1 1/2 miles under exercise rider Aurelio Gomez during the Derby and Oaks training session and came back looking "tremendous," according to trainer Kelly Breen. The Spiral winner has rapidly come into his own since changing barns in January and Breen has seen this kind of progress with Rock Hard Ten colts before. "They start putting on weight and it's like a kid going through puberty," he said. "You see it right in front of your eyes and it happens in a matter of weeks. You really can see something change and hopefully it's not an awkward growth spurt. "You see some horses that come into their own from two to three. It looks visually like he's blossoming and hopefully he runs the way that he looks."
In other Derby news: The Kentucky-bred Lines of Battle arrived at Churchill Downs at 2:25 a.m. Wednesday after a trip from Ireland. T.J. Comerford, assistant to trainer Aidan O'Brien, estimated that the trip from O'Brien's Ballydoyle training center to Churchill Downs took 14 hours. Lines of Battle was flown by charter from Shannon Airport in Ireland to Chicago and then on to Louisville. Comerford said the trip went smoothly and that the colt handled it well. Lines of Battle is scheduled to go to the track Friday morning after clearing quarantine. "It was quick enough," Comerford said. "We're used to traveling our horses. There's not a problem. He's 100 percent." Lines of Battle won the UAE Derby on March 30 to earn the points needed to qualify for a berth in the Derby. He will be O'Brien's fifth Derby starter and the third straight year he has sent the UAE Derby winner to the Kentucky Derby. "Aidan tries to have a go every year," Comerford said. "Every horse we've brought here has won the same race in Dubai. Aidan would like to win it because it's a major race, one of the biggest races." In 2011, the O'Brien-trained Master of Hounds was fifth. Last year, Daddy Long Legs was pulled up and did not finish. "It's not easy," Comerford noted. "We've come out here most than most and we've tried. God loves a trier." Ryan Moore is scheduled to ride Lines of Battle in the Derby. Gotham winner Vyjack galloped 1 1/2 miles under trainer Rudy Rodriguez Wednesday morning. Although this is owner David Wilkenfeld's first Derby starter, he said he isn't having any trouble handling the activity around America's biggest race. "I've been here with a friend before, so I have a little experience," Wilkenfeld said. "I don't find it overwhelming. I'm from New York. There's a lot going on there. I'm used to it." Vyjack is the first horse that Wilkenfeld, a longtime fan and veteran horseplayer, has owned. He paid $100,000 for the two-year-old from the first crop of Into Mischief at Fasig-Tipton's Timonium, Maryland, sale in May 2012. "I thought he would be a distance horse the way he worked three-eighths," Wilkenfeld said. "He had a long stride and was a big horse. It was from a freshman sire, so you don't really know. "Into Mischief won at a mile and a sixteenth, but never really got a shot. They were prepping him for the Derby, but he had some injury issues. But he was a fast horse and the family was fast. I like fast horses. That's what I look for and then you figure out how far they go." Wilkenfeld said he was aiming high and had the Derby as a goal when he bought Vyjack. "I really wasn't looking for a horse that would come out of the sale and would be ready to run right away," he said. "We took our time and made a plan. So far it's worked out great. "To me, if you buy a two-year-old that's the dream. I start from there and then we told Rudy early on, 'We'll plan for the Derby and if the horse disappoints, then he disappoints us. But I don't want to think small. I want to think big.' That's what we did. It worked out." Falling Sky stood in the starting gate and galloped 1 3/8 miles under Cassie Garcea Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. The Lion Heart bay has impressed trainer John Terranova with the manner in which he strides out over the Churchill surface. "He covers a lot of ground. I think this type of tighter surface, he really appreciates -- a surface he can get over the top of. This surface shows him a little bit better. He just skips over this nice tight surface," Terranova explained. "Deeper tracks maybe take away from his stride a little bit. This one he really seems to glide over. He just moves so efficiently over this track."
"The reality of it is, it's not an easy spot for anybody,'' Lukas said after watching Oxbow and Will Take Charge jog Wednesday morning. "I think it's pretty wide-open, like everybody's telling you. I don't think we've got Secretariat in this bunch, even Seattle Slew. So, I think it's going to boil to trip and the pace and a lot of other things. I'm comfortable with where I'm at with my horses. If they're good enough, we'll find out, but I'm comfortable." Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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