Cozzetti threads the needle in American Derby

Without the free-wheeling Silver Max, the pacesetting role in the American

Derby fell to All Stormy. He was a pick-up mount for embattled jockey Robby

Albarado, who was just convicted by a jury of assault in Jefferson County,

Kentucky, this week. Ironically, Albarado was originally named to ride Silver

Max, and adopted the same tactics aboard his new partner with a dash of tactical

speed.

As All Stormy carved out splits of :24 3/5, :50 2/5, 1:15 3/5 and 1:40 on the

good turf course, he was shadowed by Skyring. Cozzetti was tucked just behind

the leader in a rail-skimming spot, and Daddy Nose Best, who inherited 8-5

favoritism, stalked on the outside.

All Stormy kept motoring down the stretch, and for a brief moment, suggested

that he might hand Albarado a timely boost. Skyring couldn't do enough to catch

him, Daddy Nose Best was making hard work of things, and his biggest danger,

Cozzetti, lacked room.

In the final yards, though, a determined Cozzetti squeezed through along the

rail in a heart-stopping rally. The gallant gray negotiated 1 3/16 miles in 1:57

2/5 and paid $10, $5 and $3.20 as the 4-1 second choice.

"He was a game horse," Bridgmohan said. "We intended to go around at the

eighth-pole. The horse on the rail drifted a little bit, so I went back down on

the inside.  It was a little tight but he was game and he pulled through."

"The horse (All Stormy) ran awesome," Albarado said, "but we have to

congratulate the winner -- that horse ran a huge race. We had no excuses."

All Stormy salvaged runner-up honors by a head from a stubborn Skyring, with

Daddy Nose Best another half-length away in a staying-on fourth. Quick Wit,

Romans' third entrant, reported home fifth. The Pizza Man, Southern Parkway and

Macho Bull rounded out the order under the wire.

Cozzetti's first career stakes score advanced his record to 10-2-1-1,

$279,749. The Cozzene colt was well regarded enough to ship out west for his

stakes debut in last December's Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park, but

he disappointed in eighth. Cozzetti has stayed in the stakes ranks ever since,

posting a few useful efforts. Third in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, he finished

fourth in both the Kitten's Joy on turf and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. He was

given a chance in the May 19 Preakness, where he was a well-beaten seventh, but

showed more life when reverting to turf for the aforementioned Oliver.

As the American Derby winner, Cozzetti rates as a prime candidate for the

final leg of the Mid-America Triple, the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes on August

18. That figures to set up another clash with stablemate Silver Max, who is

expected to contest next Saturday's Grade 2 Virginia Derby on the way. 

Bred by Soc. Agr. Santa Elena de Chimbarongo Ltd. in Kentucky, Cozzetti

brought $47,000 as a Keeneland November weanling before selling for $150,000 at

the same venue as a September yearling. He is out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare

Lemon Drop Cello, who is a half-sister to Grade 2-placed stakes winner Pascal

and to stakes victress Hot Hot Mama. With his fourth dam being the influential

multiple stakes heroine Olmec, Cozzetti hails from the family of all-time

European great Dancing Brave.

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