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Medina Spirit Rises To No. 1 On NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll; Malathaat Jumps To Fifth

Following his stirring half-length victory in Saturday's Grade 1 147th Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve, Zedan Racing Stables' Medina Spirit, has risen to No. 1 in this week's National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top 3-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll.

Sent away at 12-1, Medina Spirit, a Florida-bred son of Protonico, gave Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh Kentucky Derby win and a fourth Derby victory for Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Medina Spirit, seventh in last week's poll, received 34 first-place votes and 374 points to take over the top spot from Godolphin's 2020 2-year-old champion Essential Quality, who finished fourth as the 5-2 Derby favorite. Trained by Brad Cox, the previously unbeaten Essential Quality, who led the Top 3-Year Old Poll since the first week on Feb. 16, is now in second place, with two first-place votes and 315 points.

The Cox-trained Mandaloun, who finished second in the Derby by a half-length, moves from 12th to third place this week. Owned by Juddmonte, Mandaloun has 284 points. Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing, Strauss Bros Racing and Gainesway Thoroughbreds' Hot Rod Charlie, third in the Derby, drops back one position to fourth place with 266 points for trainer Doug O'Neill.

Shadwell Stable's bay filly, Malathaat, zooms from 20th to fifth place following her dramatic win by a neck over Search Results in the Grade 1 147th Longines Kentucky Oaks last Friday. The undefeated Malathaat, trained by Todd Pletcher, has one first-place vote and 179 points.

Gary and Mary West's homebred Concert Tour, winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, rises from eighth to sixth place in the poll. Also trained by Baffert, Concert Tour has 95 points. A third Baffert-trained runner in the top 10 is WinStar Farm and CHC's Life is Good, who improved from ninth to seventh place. Off the Triple Crown trail due to injury, Life is Good has one first-place vote and 94 points.

Another major mover this week was Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior, who captured Saturday's Grade 2 Pat Day Mile presented by LG&E and KU. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Jackie's Warrior goes from 31st to eighth place, garnering 82 points. Hronis Racing and Talla Racing's Rock Your World, drops from second to 9th place this week after a 17th-place finish in the Derby while being compromised at the start. Trained by John Sadler, Rock Your World has 69 points. Maintaining 10th place is another Asmussen-trained colt, Winchell Thoroughbreds' Midnight Bourbon, who finished sixth in the Derby and has 65 points.

Godolphin's 4-year-old Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide, Group 1 Saudi Cup runner-up Charlatan, and reigning older dirt female champion Monomoy Girl again hold down the top three positions in this week's National Thoroughbred Poll. Trained by Mike Stidham, Mystic Guide received 31 first-place votes and 350 points. The Baffert-trained 4-year-old Charlatan has six first-place votes and 322 points. The 6-year-old mare Monomoy Girl, trained by Cox, is in third place with 229 points.

Robert and Lawana Low's 4-year-old Colonel Liam (199 points), who finished in a dead heat for first with Domestic Spending in Saturday's Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs, is now in fourth place, exchanging positions with Korea Racing Authority's Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup winner Knicks Go (184 points).

Michael Lund Peterson's Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter Gamine (161 points), rises from seventh to sixth place after winning Saturday's Grade 1 Derby City Distaff presented by Kendall-Jackson Winery at Churchill Downs. St. George Stable's 5-year-old mare Letruska (141 points), who defeated Monomoy Girl in Oaklawn's Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 17, is now in seventh place.

Godolphin's 4-year-old Maxfield re-enters the top 10, moving from 12th to eighth place with one first-place vote and 133 points after taking last Friday's Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes presented by Sentient Jet at Churchill Downs. The Cox-trained 4-year-old filly Shedaresthedevil (84 points), winner of Churchill's Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes presented by TwinSpires, jumps from 14th to ninth place. Competing the Top 10 is Klaravich Stable's 4-year-old Domestic Spending (55 points), who climbs to 10th from 56th place in last week's poll off the dead heat with Colonel Liam.

The NTRA Top Thoroughbred polls are the sport's most comprehensive surveys of experts. Every week eligible journalists and broadcasters cast votes for their top 10 horses, with points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. All horses that have raced in the U.S., are in training in the U.S., or are known to be pointing to a major event in the U.S. are eligible for the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. Voting in the Top Three-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll concludes following the Belmont Stakes on June 5 and the Top Thoroughbred Poll is scheduled to be conducted through Nov. 6.

The post Medina Spirit Rises To No. 1 On NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll; Malathaat Jumps To Fifth appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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NBC Draws 14.5M Viewers for Kentucky Derby

NBC Sports' presentation of the 147th Kentucky Derby averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 14.5 million viewers as the “Run for the Roses” returned to its traditional first Saturday in May date. It represented a 54% increase from last year's event (9.4 million Sept. 5), according to official national data provided by Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

Viewership peaked at 15.7 million viewers from 6:45-7 p.m. ET on NBC as Medina Spirit gave Bob Baffert his record seventh victory.

The TV-only average audience of 14.4 million viewers topped all entertainment awards shows for the first time ever and marked NBC's most watched broadcast since the NFL Divisional Playoffs in January. NBC Sports Digital's presentation of the Kentucky Derby delivered a record Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 139,300 viewers for the event via the NBC Sports app and www.NBCSports.com.

The NBC-TV household rating for the broadcast (6:31-7:18 p.m. ET) was a 7.1/22.

NBC Sports' coverage of the 146th Preakness S. from Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Md., begins Friday, May 14 at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN. NBC presents the Preakness Saturday, May 15 at 5 p.m. ET, with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

The post NBC Draws 14.5M Viewers for Kentucky Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Nothing Plain About Bob Baffert

When Bob Baffert won a record seventh GI Kentucky Derby May 1 with Medina Spirit (Protonico), I couldn't help but think back to the first time I met the conditioner.

Walking through the Keeneland barn area one mid-April morning in 1990, Baffert asked if I knew where the clockers were located at the track. We introduced ourselves to each other and I offered to show him the route to the press box, where the clockers were situated during training hours.

Baffert was in the process of switching from Quarter Horses to Thoroughbreds and had travelled to Keeneland with the first horse he hoped to run in the Derby–Thirty Slews.

Impressive winner of his first two starts in California the previous month, Baffert already had his sights set on racing's biggest prize. He shipped the son of Slewpy east to run in the Lexington S.

Thirty Slews ran third that day, behind Home At Last and Pleasant Tap, and shipped back to California while Unbridled won the Derby.

Though over the next three decades Baffert would strive–quite successfully–to find horses that could stay the Classic distance, it was apparent Thirty Slews could not.

He made 18 starts subsequent to the Lexington and only left California one other time. But the one time he did was monumental for Baffert.

Following a win in the 1992 Bing Crosby H., Thirty Slews was shipped to Florida, where he won the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park for owners Mike Pegram, Mitch Degroot and Dutch Masters III.

Sent off at 19-1, Thirty Slews just got up by a neck over Meafara, who led every step of the way–except the last step.

Thirty Slews, the first Thoroughbred Baffert purchased at public auction ($30,000 at Keeneland September), had provided him with his first Grade I win.

It is interesting to think about this: Had Thirty Slews won the Lexington, Baffert may have run him in the Derby. A colt who was unraced at 2 and would have entered the starting gate on the first Saturday of May making just his fourth start.

Of course, no horse had won the Derby without racing as a juvenile since 1892 until Baffert did it with Justify in 2018, who would go on to become a Triple Crown winner.

And, it is Baffert who has redesigned the path to the Derby, proving you can run for–and win–the roses with fewer starts before the race than trainers thought horses needed not that many years ago.

Baffert took Thirty Slews, a $30,000 yearling, and turned him into a Grade I winner.

He took Medina Spirit–a $1,000 yearling turned $35,000 2-year-old–into a Derby winner.

A few races before Medina Spirit led every step of the way to win the Derby, Baffert trained Gamine won the GI Derby City Distaff, giving the trainer a record 220 Grade I wins.

Medina Spirit would give Baffert Grade I victory number 221.

But as he crossed the finish line, I was thinking about Baffert's first Grade I winner and the day I met the trainer at Keeneland.

With seven Derby scores, Baffert passed trainer “Plain Ben” Jones.

Since that spring day I first met Baffert 31 years ago, he has proven there is nothing plain about him.

He proved it once again May 1.

The post Nothing Plain About Bob Baffert appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Derby Winner Will Van To Pimlico Due To Tex Sutton Service Disruption

Trainer Bob Baffert told media Sunday morning that his Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, would have to be vanned from Churchill Downs to Pimlico next week for the Preakness Stakes. The usual flight will not be an option due to a service disruption with Tex Sutton, the dominant equine air-transport company in the U.S.

According to the Daily Racing Form, Tex Sutton's lease on “Air Horse One,” its current aircraft, expires on May 8, and negotiations for a new lease have begun but are not yet complete.

“We are in the process of putting a new contract together with another cargo airline,” read a statement from Tex Sutton. “Because of the regulatory process required to get them up and running, we anticipate a short-term gap in our normal service.”

Most of the horses competing in the Preakness are already located on the East Coast, and the one probable entrant still in California, Rombauer, was scheduled to fly to New Jersey on May 5.