Chip Honcho, winner of the Gun Runner and a close second in the Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds will bypass the Kentucky Derby (G1) in favor of the May 16 Preakness Stakes (G1), Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.
The 151st Preakness will be held at Laurel Park. Asmussen, a two-time Preakness winner, said the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown was just a better fit after Chip Honcho finished fifth in the Louisiana Derby (G2) in his last start at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles.
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“We worked Chip today and spoke with Lee Ackerley, the majority owner, and ultimately I just don’t have a good excuse for a bad race in the Louisiana Derby,” Asmussen said. “I very much don’t want to put two of those [together], no guarantees that I won’t. [But] I think avoiding running in the Derby off of that and pointing him for the Preakness gives us a better chance to get back on track.
“When they talk about back on track, Chip Honcho is a horse that ran a 7 [Ragozin speed figure] at a mile and an eighth in February,” he added, referencing the Risen Star in which Chip Honcho led most of the race before finishing second by a half-length to Paladin. “Not a lot of them are capable of doing that. Somebody who believes in numbers, if it’s in black and white, it’s true. And we need to get back to that. We’re not needing to run that much faster, that much farther, to be a serious contender in the most important 3-year-old races.”
Chip Honcho worked five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.80 in company, getting the last quarter-mile in a sparkling :23 2/5.
“Our issues with Chip obviously not being as consistent as we want is how he handles [things]. Blinkers on, blinkers off. How aggressive he is, how he breaks,” Asmussen said. “We’ve got 150,000 [people on Derby Day] and [4,800] at Laurel. I’d put that under the common sense category.”
Lack of Consistency Biggest Factor
Asked if the Preakness distance versus the Derby’s 1 1/4 miles was a factor, Asmussen said, “I think the biggest factor right now is his lack of consistency and how he is handled in races and the common sense of 150,000 setting you off or [4,800] not. Look it up: There are not a whole lot of 3-year-olds who have run ‘7s’ at this stage, which is an indication of how fast you are from Point A to Point B. So, we are risking or dealing with a lot.”
Asmussen won the 2007 Preakness with two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin, who got up in the final stride after battling Derby winner Street Sense the last eighth of a mile. Two years later, wine magnate Jess Jackson bought Rachel Alexandra after she won the Kentucky Oaks (G1) by a record 20 ¼ lengths, sending her to Asmussen. Rachel Alexandra defeated longshot Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length to become the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years en route to being crowned 2009 Horse of the Year. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
“My first Classic win was in the Preakness, Curlin beating Street Sense that day,” Asmussen said. “When you’ve had two Preakness wins, Curlin and Rachel Alexandra, those horses are what dreams are made of.”
Chip Honcho’s sire, Connect, is a son of Curlin. The $210,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling purchase is 2-2-0 in six starts, earning $280,475 for Ackerley, James Sherwood, Jode Shupe and John Cilia.
Others horses under Preakness consideration include Crude Velocity and Cherokee Nation, both trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Iron Honor and Ottinho (Chad Brown), Napoleon Solo (Chad Summers), Talk to Me Jimmy (Rudy Rodriguez), Crupper (Donnie Von Hemel), Taj Mahal (Brittany Russell), Talkin (Danny Gargan) and The Hell We Did (Todd Fincher).
The Hell We Did Arrives for Preakness
Peacock Family Racing Stables’ The Hell We Did, runner-up in the April 11 Lexington (G3) at Keeneland, arrived at Laurel Park Tuesday morning for his next assignment in the 151st Preakness Stakes (G1) May 16.
The Hell We Did, a homebred son of 2020 Preakness runner-up and Horse of the Year Authentic, is the first horse to arrive from out of town for the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, being hosted at Laurel.
Preakness-bound Taj Mahal, an automatic qualifier for his victory in Laurel’s April 18 Federico Tesio, is based at Laurel with Maryland’s three-time consecutive year-end leading trainer Brittany Russell.
“It looks like he traveled well and settled right in, according to my assistant,” trainer Todd Fincher said. “We’re in Kentucky and it’s harder to find riders since Churchill [Downs began its meet] to work horses and things like that. Instead of moving him twice, to Churchill and again to Maryland, we just made one move.”
The Hell We Did has alternated running first and second through four races, capturing his unveiling last October at Remington Park before a runner-up finish in November’s Zia Park Juvenile. He began this year with a mid-March allowance triumph at Sunland Park and beat all but 32-1 longshot Trendsetter in the 1 1/16-mile Lexington, his two-turn debut.
“He ran a good race. He’d never even had a mile race under his belt,” Fincher said. “His race off the layoff was very easy and it was only six furlongs, so he really needed that. He ran really well. We were happy with the way he ran, but we expect a big jump.”
The Hell We Did is scheduled visit the main track Wednesday morning and have his first of two works Saturday at Laurel under Fincher’s assistant trainer and exercise rider, Oscar Rojero.
“He needs to go out tomorrow. It looks like a lot of rain so maybe we’ll just jog him. We’ll play it by ear. We’re planning on working him Saturday and then Saturday again,” Fincher said. “[Getting in early is] a good advantage as long as he likes it there and everything. I think it’s an advantage for sure.”
