Bruce Lunsford's homebred Bernardini colt Art Collector returned to his home base at Skylight Training Center in Goshen, Ky., on Saturday night following his 31/2-length victory under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. in the $600,000 Toyota Blue Grass (G2) at Keeneland.
The victory gave trainer Tom Drury Jr. his first graded stakes triumph.
“It was a pretty special day,” Drury said Sunday morning, noting there was not much time for celebration. “You know how we horse trainers are. I had to get him back to Skylight last night and I had to be at Churchill Downs at 5:30 (this morning) for the first set. I wound up having a frozen pizza and a cold beer.”
With the Toyota Blue Grass victory, Art Collector picked up 100 qualifying points toward the $3 million Kentucky Derby (G1) to be run Sept. 5. That total is good for fourth place on the Derby leaderboard with only six points races remaining for the classic, which is limited to the top 20 point earners that pass the entry box.
“I am going to get with Bruce in the next couple of days and figure out what we will do,” Drury said about the eight weeks remaining before the Derby. “Art Collector will stay at Skylight for a little while because it is quieter there and then like we have done before, two weeks or so before he runs we will bring him back to Churchill.
“If we do anything, it likely would be Ellis (the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9).”
On Saturday evening, trainer Kenny McPeek tweeted that Peter Callahan's Toyota Blue Grass runner-up, Swiss Skydiver, “came back in good order. Very proud of her race today. We will likely point towards the Kentucky Oaks.”
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