Alpha’s Derby travel plans unveiled
Art Magnuson, assistant to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, revealed Grade 3 Withers Stakes winner, Alpha’s Derby travel plans, said that the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino New York City Wood Memorial Stakes runner up will head to Louisville, where he will participate
in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on 5 May, via overnight van on 16 April, 2012.
“Since it’s Kentucky, we’re just going to truck,” said Magnuson. “We’ve had good luck doing that – box stall, overnight, he’ll be fine. Going to and from Florida a lot of times we fly because there are planes available, and I’m sure there will be planes
going to Kentucky, but we want to go when we want to go. So, we’ll leave Monday afternoon and he’ll be there Tuesday morning.”
Godolphin Racing’s Alpha will turn in couple of work outs after being shipped to Louisville leading up to the Kentucky Derby.
The Kentucky bred son of Bernardini, out of mare Munnaya by Nijinsky II, Alpha races thrice in his juvenile season and thrice in his sophomore season with three wins and 2 runner up finishes.
He broke his maiden at first asking last year at Saratoga going seven furlongs, and then at Belmont Park he turned in a second place finish to Union Rags in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes.
The rampant colt fell away badly in his last race of the season, when he finished a dull 11th to winner Hansen, and the eventual juvenile champion, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Started off well in his 2012 seasonal opener, when he won the Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct race track. He stayed at Aqueduct and downed the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at about 1 1/16 miles.
He got stretched out in distance and to 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial and a game effort there earned him a runner up spot.
He clipped heels in the Wood Memorial, and on 13 April he went through an ultra sound to take a closer look at a laceration the colt sustained when he clipped heels.
It was a pretty hard knock, but he never gave up and turned in a game second say a lot about the colt, who is one of the main contenders of the Kentucky Derby.
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