Sporting a rather unique bridle during morning training hours at Churchill Downs has been Kentucky Derby contender Mandaloun, a flashy bay son of Into Mischief trained by Brad Cox.
“We call it a gag bit,” Cox explained Friday morning. “He's a strong horse to gallop, so it just kind of gives the rider a little bit more control. It slows him down a little bit, so that's the reason for using that. We use in on several of what we call 'tough horses,' horses that kind of want to over-train at times.”
Cox said the 3-year-old homebred for Juddmonte Farm has been wearing the bridle during morning training since at least January, but the colt breezes and races in the more traditional ring bit.
The sharp-looking Mandaloun has been training forwardly since his last race, a race Cox called “a clunker,” when he ran sixth as the heavy favorite in the G2 Louisiana Derby. Prior to that race, Mandaloun had finished third by a length in the G3 Lecomte, and won the G2 Risen Star by 1 1/4 lengths.
“He was training so well leading up to the Louisiana Derby, and he was the favorite; we thought he would perform well, and he just didn't,” said Cox. “He was a little flat in the race, but he bounced out of it in great order, so that's why we're here.
“He deserves the right to run as long as he's doing well, and he's doing fantastic… He's definitely the question mark in the field as to if he's going to show up. If he does, he's a contender. If he runs the Louisiana Derby race, he's not.”
Mandaloun gallops on Friday morning at Churchill Downs
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