EMPIRE MAKER CRUSHES FLORIDA DERBY FIELD
On Saturday, Juddmonte Farms’ marvelous broodmare Toussaud
became only the third Northern Hemisphere-based mare to breed four
individual Gr.1 winners since the inception of the Pattern
programme in 1971. She joined the elite club, which previously
included only Dahlia and Fall Aspen, when her three-year-old Empire
Maker was the wide margin winner of the Gr.1 Florida Derby at
Gulfstream Park on March 15th.
The bay son of Unbridled (now favourite to land the Gr.1
Kentucky Derby) has been preceded by the Gr.1 winners Chester House
(at stud at Juddmonte Farms), Honest Lady, and Chiselling, plus the
Gr.2 winner Decarchy.
Sent off the 2-1 second choice in the Gr.1 Florida Derby, Empire
Maker swept past even-money favorite Trust N Luck (Montbrook) and
powered away to a 9 3/4 –length triumph. “He broke right there and
he could have gone after [Trust N Luck] any time,” trainer Bobby
Frankel said. “He ran off the chart today. If he runs like this in
the Kentucky Derby, he could win it.” Jockey Jerry Bailey said that
when he saw Trust N Luck’s jockey, Cornelio Velasquez, attempt to
urge his mount leaving the three-eighths pole, “and the horse
wasn’t responding, I knew I had him. Trust N Luck didn’t seem quite
as sharp as he had been today, but I was sitting on high octane
myself.”
Empire Maker broke alertly, but when it was apparent that Trust
N Luck was going to be pressed early by Midway Cat and Formal
Outside to the outside, Bailey guided his mount to the inside. From
there he tracked the leaders through the first turn and down the
backstretch through fractions of :22 4/5 for the opening
quarter-mile, :46 1/5 for the half and 1:10 3/5 for six
furlongs.
Empire Maker continued to inch up on the inside of Formal Attire
on the turn and was ready to pounce on the lead by the time they
hit the head of the stretch after an opening mile of 1:36. He
quickly assumed command on the outside of Trust N Luck and after
changing leads in mid-stretch, was lengthening his lead with each
stride as the crossed under the wire. Empire Maker covered the 1
1/8 mile distance in 1:49.
Trainer Bobby Frankel said that Empire Maker would make his next
start in the Apr. 12 Gr.1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. “I thought it
over and decided we mapped out a schedule before [the Florida
Derby] and I don’t want to deviate from it.” He added, “He has so
much ability that he still may not even have run his best
race.”
Date:
18 March 2003