As Pablo Morales returned to the jockeys' room alongside assistant trainer Juan Aguayo after his victory aboard Emmanuel in Tampa Bay Downs' sixth race on Sunday, a fan pretty much summed up what he felt privileged to observe.
“That was a magic carpet ride,” the spectator said. Morales nodded in assent.
Emmanuel, whose scheduled 2022 debut here on Jan. 7 was pushed back after he spiked a temperature, made the wait worthwhile today with a highly professional 4 ½-length victory from Glider in the sixth race, the mile-and-40-yard Cody's Original Roadhouse Race of the Week.
Already considered a Kentucky Derby prospect by a number of experts, the Todd Pletcher-trained 3-year-old colt broke alertly under Morales and led the six-horse field throughout. Trainer Mark Casse's colt Glider challenged at the 1/8-mile pole under Antonio Gallardo, but Emmanuel, as it turned out, was just getting started, as he finished in 1:40.24, impressive time on the fast but slightly tiring dirt surface.
Pletcher's other horse in the race, In the Union, finished third.
“I'm very pleased with the way he handled the two turns,” Pletcher said via text message. “We will keep all options open for his next start.”
Pletcher added that the Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis Stakes would be too soon to bring him back, but Tampa Bay Downs Racing Office officials will be working overtime to land him for the Grade 2, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 12.
Morales was more expansive in his comments, having piloted the Ferrari-like colt around the track.
“Just a class horse. I felt like I had so many gears underneath me,” Morales said. “Every time I would just move a hair, he would take off a little bit more and just do it easily. He felt (Glider) coming on the inside down the lane, so I decided to give him a little bit of a hand ride and I could feel him extending more and more.
“He just did it easy – it felt like a workout for him. He acts like an old horse who has run 100 times and he gives you what you ask out of him. I'm thankful I was considered to ride him. It was a pleasure.”
To casual observers, Emmanuel, a son of More Than Ready out of the Hard Spun mare Hard Cloth, seems to be setting out on a similar 3-year-old path as Pletcher's Always Dreaming in 2017. Always Dreaming broke his maiden at Tampa on Jan. 25 at the mile-and-40 distance in his third career start. What came next? Victories in an allowance/optional claiming event and the G1 Xpressbet Florida Derby at Gulfstream, followed by a triumph in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands.
Owned by WinStar Farm and Siena Farm, Emmanuel was a $350,000 yearling purchase at the Keeneland September sale. He was bred in Kentucky by the Helen K. Groves Revocable Trust, out of a half-sister to both multiple Group 1-winner and $4.7 million-earner Hawkbill as well as Grade 1 winner Free Drop Billy.
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