LEXINGTON, Ky. _ If this year's Kentucky Derby had been run on its accustomed date _ the first Saturday in May _ there wouldn't have been a whisper about a 3-year-old colt named Art Collector.
There will be plenty of talk about him over the next couple of months. And he'll be bringing a band of horsemen with Louisville connections with him to Churchill Downs on that first Saturday in September.
Art Collector stalked star filly Swiss Skydiver all around the Keeneland track Saturday before pulling away in the stretch for an impressive victory in the Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, announcing his presence as one of the top performers in this 3-year-old crop.
"I thought he ran a fantastic race," said 48-year-old trainer Tommy Drury, who earned his first graded stakes victory. "Just got the dream trip, and just so proud of my horse. He really showed up today. We felt like he was going the right way and felt like he was doing things the right way, but you never know until you run against this kind of competition. So I think he answered a lot of questions today for us."
The 3-year-old son of Bernardini took a roundabout path to the $600,000 Blue Grass Stakes, the latest stop on this most unorthodox of Kentucky Derby trails.
Art Collector ran his first three races on turf, switched to the dirt last November and earned his first victory for trainer Joe Sharp on that surface one race later. That result, however, was tossed after a positive test for the de-worming medication levamisole.
Owner Bruce Lunsford _ a Kenton County native, University of Kentucky grad, and Louisville resident _ moved his homebred colt from Sharp to Drury, and it was nearly six months before he returned to racing.
Art Collector made his 3-year-old debut at Churchill Downs on May 17 _ that's 15 days after the original date of the Kentucky Derby, which was pushed back to Sept. 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic _ and that first race of 2020 was a winning one. Four weeks later, he romped to a 6 {-length victory in another allowance race at Churchill.
That performance earned him a shot in the Blue Grass Stakes. He made it count.
"We decided to take it slow," a giddy Lunsford said after Saturday's win. "We probably could have been in some stakes races, but we just held on and said, 'Our time could come.' And for him to beat a filly like that one that we beat today _ and the rest of the field pretty handily _ lets me know I'm in the right place.
"And Tommy is just a tremendous horseman. This is going to be a change of life for him ... and maybe all of us."
