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Godolphin colts work five furlongs at Churchill REGAL RANSOM (Distorted Humor) and DESERT PARTY (Street Cry [Ire]) -- Godolphin's pair of Kentucky Derby (G1) hopefuls -- turned in sharp works Saturday in their first serious training at Churchill Downs. U.A.E. Derby (UAE-G2) winner Regal Ransom turned in one of the best works of the day as he zipped five furlongs over a fast track in :59 4/5 under exercise rider Bob Chapman. The dark bay colt worked shortly after the track opened for training on the perfect spring morning and carved out fractions of :12 3/5, :24 1/5, :35 4/5 and :48 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:13. Desert Party, winner of last summer's Sanford S. (G2) at Saratoga and the U.A.E. Two Thousand Guineas (UAE-G3) and runner-up to Regal Ransom in the U.A.E. Derby, worked just after the mid-session break for track maintenance and breezed five furlongs in 1:00 1/5. Chapman was aboard as the bay colt covered the distance in fractions of :12 1/5, :24 2/5, :37 and :48 4/5 and galloped out strongly with six furlongs in 1:13 1/5. "Both of them seemed to grab the track really good," said Rick Mettee, assistant to Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor. "This is the first these two have worked over a dirt track since last fall. Of course they ran over the dirt at Nad al Sheba, but that's one reason why Saeed wanted to get them in here earlier. They've been training at the (synthetic) Tapeta track over at Al Quoz (in Dubai) and then before they got there they trained over the conventional Polytrack at Keeneland." Desert Party had some unexpected company on the track as he encountered Nowhere to Hide (Vindication), the Nick Zito-trained fourth-place finisher in the Risen Star (G3), Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and Illinois Derby (G2), at the head of the stretch and quickly blew past that colt as he split Zito's colt on the rail and a galloper to the outside. "He had some competition there turning for home and that kind of spurred him on a little bit," Mettee said. "He grabbed the track fine and galloped out good and we're really happy with that. He probably isn't as a good a work horse as the other. The track might not have been quite as fast as it was early. That's what my rider said." Mettee said there has still been no formal decision as to whether both colts will run in the 135th Kentucky Derby on May 2, but said Saturday's efforts by Regal Ransom and Desert Party could accelerate that decision. "I think we wanted to kind of get past this hurdle and see how both of them were doing," he said. "Both of them worked good before we left -- both of them worked sharp halves. So this was the next step. Saeed and Shiekh Mohammed will go over that, and it probably won't be that long before they make a decision." Mettee said Regal Ransom and Desert Party would have one more work in the days leading up to the Derby. "We're kind of ahead of the game now, so we could go anywhere from Saturday to Tuesday of next week," he said. "Depending the weather and the track, we'd just wait and see." Desert Party has a career record of 6-4-1-0 and has earned $688,467. Regal Ransom's record stands at 5-2-2-0 with earnings of $1,297,200.
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