LEXINGTON, Ky. — It’s a long streak. A very long streak. It has been 30 years since the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland went on to capture the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Strike the Gold was the last colt to do it. Nick Zito was the trainer. The year was 1991.
Could 2021 finally end the drought? It very well could, thanks to Essential Quality, the undefeated homebred owned by Godolphin Racing, who drew the No. 4 post position on Tuesday and was installed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite for this year’s $800,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, set for Saturday at Keeneland.
Trained by 2020 Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, Essential Quality has already recorded two big wins on the Keeneland surface, capturing the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year on the way to winning the Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old.
In his one start this year, the son of Tapit rolled to a four and one-quarter length win in the slop in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 27. Rather than keep Essential Quality in Arkansas and prepare for the Arkansas Derby on April 10, Cox elected to bring his prize colt back to Kentucky and use the Blue Grass as his final Derby prep.
“Brad had a pretty good idea not too long after the Breeders’ Cup what he really wanted to do,” Jimmy Bell, president of Godolphin USA, said Monday on an NTRA teleconference. “He said, ‘I’d like to run in two prep races.’ ... (Essential Quality) has a pretty good track record at Keeneland, which isn’t far from Churchill, which sort of gets you in the neighborhood.”
His presence is a boon for the Blue Grass, which has slipped from a Grade 1 race to Grade 2 in recent years after its fields paled in comparison to the Santa Anita Derby and Arkansas Derby. The last colt to run in the Blue Grass and win the Kentucky Derby was Street Sense, who finished second in the Blue Grass before winning the Derby in 2007.
Last year, however, Lexington-based trainer Kenny McPeek entered his star filly, Swiss Skydiver, in the Blue Grass. After a second-place finish to Art Collector, Swiss Skydiver went on to beat the boys in the Preakness, the second jewel of the Triple Crown.
Cox is also a Kentuckian, a native of Louisville who won the 2020 Eclipse Award for best trainer after campaigning Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil at Churchill Downs before winning four races at Keeneland’s Breeders’ Cup, including the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Monomoy Girl, the 2018 Distaff winner who had missed all of 2019 with an injury.
Cox has never entered a colt in the Kentucky Derby much less won the world’s most famous horse race. With Bob Baffert’s Life Is Good off the Derby trail because of an ankle injury, Essential Quality was made the 4-1 favorite over Rebel Stakes winner Concert Tour, another Baffert colt, and “All Other 3-Year-Olds” in the fifth and final pool of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which concluded Sunday.
Highly Motivated is the second choice in the Blue Grass at 7-2 for trainer Chad Brown. The son of Into Mischief, who sired 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, Highly Motivated ran third in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes on March 6 for owner Seth Klarman of Klaravich Stables. Brown won the 2018 Blue Grass with Good Magic.
Untreated is co-third choice at 8-1 for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Nyquist colt turned in an impressive performance in breaking his maiden, in his second try, on March 6 at Tampa Bay Downs. Pletcher has won the Blue Grass three times, most recently with Carpe Diem in 2015.
Keepmeinmind is also 8-1. The winner of last year’s Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs ran sixth in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on March 13 for trainer Robertino Diodoro. Keepmeinmind was second to Essential Quality in last year’s Breeders’ Futurity and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Rounding out the field is Hush of a Storm (15-1), Rombauer (15-1), Hidden Stash (20-1), LeBlon (30-1) and Sittin On Go (30-1).
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SATURDAY AT KEENELAND
— What: Six graded stakes races including the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and the Central Bank Ashland Stakes, which are prep races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively
— When: First post is 1:05 p.m. Post time for the Ashland is 5:30 p.m., for the Blue Grass, 6:35 p.m.
— TV: TVG
BLUE GRASS STAKES FIELD
1. Hidden Stash (20-1)
2. Untreated (8-1)
3. Highly Motivated (7-2)
4. Essential Quality (3-5)
5. Rombauer (15-1)
6. Leblon (30-1)
7. Hush of a Storm (15-1)
8. Sittin On Go (30-1)
9. Keepmeinmind (8-1)
