Brian Hernandez Jr. | Horse Racing Free Tips

Jockeying Around With Art Collector: Hernandez Filling In For Exercise Rider Aboard Derby-Bound Colt

Jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. has been filling a rather unusual role for the past several days at Churchill Downs. During the special training hours set aside for Kentucky Derby contenders, Hernandez has been out on the track as his mount Art Collector's exercise rider rather than watching him from the rail.

Jockeys for big races will often be aboard their mounts for major workouts, but day-to-day exercise riders are usually tasked with galloping and jogging.

Trainer Tommy Drury indicated that the colt's regular exercise rider, James Lopez, has been undergoing quarantine due to the COVID-19 protocols at Churchill Downs.

“Tommy asked me a few days ago if minded just coming out and getting on him,” Hernandez explained. “I said 'of course I don't, I'm here every morning anyway.' It's like being back at Evangeline Downs again. When I first started riding, I had to gallop everything I rode.”

When Art Collector shipped in to Churchill from the Skylight Training Center on Wednesday last week, Hernandez got a leg up on the colt for Thursday morning's training session, a scheduled gallop.

Art Collector was a bit of a handful during a gallop under jockey Brian Hernandez on Aug. 27 at Churchill Downs

“The first morning after he came back from Skylight he was out here at Churchill and I galloped him,” Hernandez said. “He's normally a pretty laid-back horse, but that morning there it was a little later and we had a lot of traffic, he got a little aggressive and wanted to jump up and go. A couple times I had to reach up and slow him down. My wife, she was making fun of me later that night. She said if I was her gallop boy, she'd have fired me!”

Art Collector and Hernadez went through a five-furlong workout together on Friday, covering the distance in 1:00.80, before jogging one mile on Saturday and two miles on Sunday.

“With these good horses like that, you want to get on them every day if possible,” Hernandez said. “Getting on him the last couple mornings and jogging him, you know where you're at with him. He's jogging off great right now, and seems to be really happy with himself… He's a happy horse and he seems to be going the right way right now.”

The colt's regular exercise rider Lopez was able to return on Monday for a scheduled gallop.

“The good news is that Brian's been on this horse so much in the mornings, and he knows him well,” said trainer Drury, for whom Art Collector is a first Derby starter. “He's a very kind horse. The first day we galloped him here, that's probably the most animated I've ever seen him on the racetrack, so I was glad that Brian was able to get along with him.

“At this point, you're not so much thinking about training, you're just keeping him happy. He's fit and ready to roll.”

Thanks to the National Turfwriters and Broadcasters Association (NTWAB), which has assembled a group of pool reporters providing independent reporting to members unable to be on the Churchill Downs grounds this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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Anchor Down Picks Up First Winner At Ellis Park

Drop Anchor fanned out wide and got the job done on Sunday at Ellis Park to become the first winner for his sire Anchor Down, BloodHorse reports.

The gray or roan colt had some trouble at the break, and spent the first half-mile of the six-furlong race near the back of the field. Then, he was moved out seven-wide in the lane under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., and they took the clear path to a 1 1/2-length victory. Drop Anchor stopped the clock in 1:12.32 over a fast main track.

Drop Anchor won for the partnership of Harold Lerner, AWC Stables, Nehoc Stables and David Bernsen, and he is trained by Kenny McPeek.

Bred in Kentucky by Chad Frederick and Phoenix Farm and Racing, Drop Anchor is out of the placed Curlin mare Black Coronas.

Anchor Down stands at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., for an advertised fee of $7,500.

The 9-year-old son of Tapit won five of 17 starts for earnings of $734,254, with victories in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap and the G3 Westchester Stakes. He also finished second in the G1 Metropolitan Handicap.

Anchor Down is out of the Grade 3-winning Orientate mare Successful Outlook, making him a full-brother to Grade 3 winner Iron Fist and a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Sweet Lulu.

Art Collector Records Front-Running Win In Runhappy Ellis Park Derby

Art Collector, Bruce Lunsford's homebred colt by Bernardini, rolled to his fourth consecutive win for trainer Tommy Drury on Sunday, winning the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

Under confident handling from Brian Hernandez Jr., Art Collector covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.02, winning by about three lengths. Attachment Rate, who was wide much of the way, finished second for trainer Dale Romans and jockey Joe Talamo. Necker Island finished third, with Rowdy Yates fourth, Grade 3 Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense fifth and G3 Ohio Derby winner Dean Martini sixth in the field of 12 3-year-olds.

Art Collector set fractions of :23.33, :46.74, 1:10.70, and 1:35.25. Truculent, who pressured Art Collector for much of the way, finished last.

The race offered qualifying points (50-20-10-5) to the top four finishers for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.

“He's done nothing wrong this year, he's answered every question,” Drury said on TVG after the race.

Art Collector came into the Ellis Park Derby off a 3 1/2-length win over the filly Swiss Skydiver in the G2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on July 11, coming from just off the pace. He won two allowance races before that at Churchill Downs, one of them in wire-to-wire fashion.

“I never really sent him, he broke sharp like he always does,” Hernandez said on TVG. “If I needed do I thought I could run them off their feet. It was impressive. He was drawing away pretty easily. Like Tommy said, we wanted to use this race as a building block, a foundation.”

From the Distorted Humor mare, Distorted Legacy, Art Collector began his career racing on turf for trainer Joe Sharp. He finished sixth in his first dirt race at Churchill Downs last November, then came from off the pace to finish 7 1/2 lengths in front in a Nov. 30 allowance race. A post-race drug test turned up positive for the prohibited substance levamisole and Art Collector was disqualified from that win.

Lunsford subsequently moved the horse to Drury, who is based at the Skylight training center near Louisville.

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Art Collector Takes Heat, Keeps Going in Sharp Ellis Derby Score

There was no easy ride for heavily-favored ART COLLECTOR (c, 3, Bernardini–Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor) in Sunday’s Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, as he was pressured hard on the front end throughout, but in the end it made little difference, as the streaking bay turned away all challengers to cement himself as one of the favorites for the GI Kentucky Derby.

Breaking sharply at 2-5, Art Collector made the lead on his own power under Brian Hernandez, Jr. while being kept a bit off the rail heading into the clubhouse turn. Pushed along by 99-1 shot Truculent (Raison d’Etat) through a :23.33 quarter, he got no breather through a :46.74 half. Just as soon as he put aside the pace-pressing bomb, the Bruce Lunsford homebred was confronted with a two-pronged challenge from GIII Ohio Derby winner Dean Martini (Cairo Prince) and Attachment Rate (Hard Spun) as three-quarters went up in 1:10.70. The former was the first to sputter as the trio neared the lane, but Attachment Rate put in a game bid before being disposed of himself passing the furlong grounds. Without challengers for the final sixteenth, Hernandez rode Art Collector home hands and heels, finishing 3 1/4 lengths to the good in 1:48.02. Attachment Rate was clear for the place.

“He’s such a professional horse, and he showed it again today. He was able to go :46 2/5 on the lead and just able to widen on them again,” said Hernandez. “It’s a testament to the horse, how really good he is. That’s quick for a half, especially going a mile and an eighth. That’s really fast for a horse. And he was able to do it within himself. He traveled like a winner the whole way. We say that all the time, but being on their back, we have an instinct to know how fast they’re going. That’s all I wanted to do: just stay out of his way and let him travel.”

A second-out graduate on the Kentucky Downs turf, Art Collector was off the board in his next two starts and ended up as one of several horses disqualified for trainer Joe Sharp due to a levamisole positive after dominating a Churchill optional claimer in his 2-year-old finale. Switched to trainer Tom Drury after that, he is undefeated as a sophomore under the new banner, capturing a pair of allowances this spring in Louisville before legitimizing those runs with a similarly sharp tally in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. July 11 at Keeneland.

“This is huge,” said Hernandez. “We’re going into the Derby now with a legitimate horse. Like we said after the Blue Grass, he’s proven he’s getting better and better with each race. He showed it again today. He put everyone away. He did it all on his own and ran away from there.”

Pedigree Notes:

Art Collector, one of 75 stakes winners and 46 graded stakes winners for Darley’s Bernardini, is the second foal to race out of Grade I-placed Distorted Legacy, who finished fourth, beaten just a length, at 45-1 in the 2011 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. She is a half-sister to GSW/MGISP Vision and Verse (Storm Cat) out of Grade I-placed Bunting. This is also the female family of GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff heroine Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat) and Venezuelan Horses of the Year Ninfa del Cielo (Ven) (Big Prairie) and Bukowski (Ven) (Big Prairie). Distorted Legacy has a yearling Into Mischief colt and foaled another colt by the same sire Feb. 5.

RUNHAPPY ELLIS PARK DERBY, $193,750, Ellis, 8-9, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:48.02, ft.
1–ART COLLECTOR, 122, c, 3, by Bernardini
1st Dam: Distorted Legacy (SW & GISP, $421,466), by Distorted Humor
2nd Dam: Bunting, by Private Account
3rd Dam: Flag Waver, by Hoist the Flag
O/B-W. Bruce Lunsford (KY); T-Thomas Drury, Jr.; J-Brian
Joseph Hernandez, Jr. $115,905. Lifetime Record: 9-5-1-0,
$664,380.
2–Attachment Rate, 118, c, 3, Hard Spun–Aristra, by Afleet
Alex. ($100,000 Wlg ’17 KEENOV; $200,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP).
O-Jim Bakke & Gerald Isbister; B-C. Oliver Iselin (VA); T-Dale L.
Romans. $32,550.
3–Necker Island, 118, c, 3, Hard Spun–Jenny’s Rocket, by Mr.
Greeley. ($250,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Raymond Daniels &
Wayne Scherr; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY);
T-Chris A. Hartman. $18,775.
Margins: 3 1/4, 5 1/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.40, 14.40, 31.50.
Also Ran: Rowdy Yates, Shared Sense, Dean Martini, Winning Impression, Anneau d’Or, Sprawl, Trident Hit, Little Menace, Truculent. Scratched: Rogue Element. Click for the Equibase.com chart.

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