Blinkers off Lookin at Lucky for the Derby
DiscreetCat
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from the Boston Herald:
Having endured brutal trips in his two starts this year, Lookin At Lucky will not be equipped with blinkers in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1. Trainer Bob Baffert has come to the conclusion that the son of Smart Strike had done just fine without them during his juvenile championship season in 2009. He won five straight races to launch his career before finishing a wide and troubled second in the Breeders Cup Juvenile and ending his 2-year-old season with a victory in the CashCall Futurity.
Taking the advice of jockey Garrett Gomez, Baffert put blinkers on Lookin At Lucky for his sophomore debut and his first start on a dirt track in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The Kentucky-bred colt was knocked off stride when he clipped heels with Nobles Promise on the backstretch but recovered impressively to win by a head. Lookin At Lucky was sawed off on the far turn in his next start and lost all chance of winning the Santa Anita Derby, although he did recover admirably to finish third behind runaway winner Sidneys Candy.
While Baffert has left the strong impression that he blames Gomez bad rides for his colts misfortunes more than the blinkers, the Hall of Fame trainer has voiced the belief that removing blinkers from Lookin At Luckys equipment will be beneficial in getting him to rate more kindly.
Baffert surely made the decision while doing a little handicapping. Aware of the super-abundance of speedy Derby contenders, he realized the importance of getting Lookin At Lucky to settle nicely off a hotly contested early pace.
Baffert probably was more than a little tempted to remove Gomez along with the blinkers, especially after the disastrous Santa Anita Derby trip, but the two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockeys familiarity with his colt would be hard to replace. Gomez has been aboard Looking At Lucky for all eight of his starts and has already shown that he fits him a lot better than his blinkers did.
Having endured brutal trips in his two starts this year, Lookin At Lucky will not be equipped with blinkers in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1. Trainer Bob Baffert has come to the conclusion that the son of Smart Strike had done just fine without them during his juvenile championship season in 2009. He won five straight races to launch his career before finishing a wide and troubled second in the Breeders Cup Juvenile and ending his 2-year-old season with a victory in the CashCall Futurity.
Taking the advice of jockey Garrett Gomez, Baffert put blinkers on Lookin At Lucky for his sophomore debut and his first start on a dirt track in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The Kentucky-bred colt was knocked off stride when he clipped heels with Nobles Promise on the backstretch but recovered impressively to win by a head. Lookin At Lucky was sawed off on the far turn in his next start and lost all chance of winning the Santa Anita Derby, although he did recover admirably to finish third behind runaway winner Sidneys Candy.
While Baffert has left the strong impression that he blames Gomez bad rides for his colts misfortunes more than the blinkers, the Hall of Fame trainer has voiced the belief that removing blinkers from Lookin At Luckys equipment will be beneficial in getting him to rate more kindly.
Baffert surely made the decision while doing a little handicapping. Aware of the super-abundance of speedy Derby contenders, he realized the importance of getting Lookin At Lucky to settle nicely off a hotly contested early pace.
Baffert probably was more than a little tempted to remove Gomez along with the blinkers, especially after the disastrous Santa Anita Derby trip, but the two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockeys familiarity with his colt would be hard to replace. Gomez has been aboard Looking At Lucky for all eight of his starts and has already shown that he fits him a lot better than his blinkers did.
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