Ricky Courville | Horse Racing Free Tips

Un Ojo Out of Preakness

Un Ojo (Laoban), upset winner of the GII Rebel S. earlier this year, will not be running in Saturday's GI Preakness S. as he continues to deal with a foot bruise which kept him out of the GI Kentucky Derby.

“This morning his foot was a little warm again,” trainer Ricky Courville told the Preakness media team. “The vets went over him, and he's not 100%. I'm dealing with the same thing. I guess the work [Saturday] kind of re-aggravated it.”

In addition to the defection of Un Ojo, Pimlico officials announced the possible addition of Villa Rosa Farm and Harlo Stable's Fenwick (Curlin) to the Preakness field. Trained by Kevin McKathan, the colt was a maiden winner at Tampa Bay Downs before finishing 11th in the GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

The post position draw for the Preakness will be held Monday afternoon.

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Epicenter Sitting on Go for Preakness

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time) remained on target for Saturday's GI Preakness S. after a 1 1/2-mile gallop at Churchill Downs Sunday morning.

“He seems to be pretty sharp,” Scott Blasi, who oversees trainer Steve Asmussen's Churchill division, said of the GI Kentucky Derby runner-up and likely Preakness favorite. “I love how he's doing. He galloped today like that was nothing; walked off the track with good energy. We'll put a little work in him and go. Not much to do from here on out…. [but] win.”

Epicenter had the lead in midstretch of the Derby before being passed by 80-1 longshot Rich Strike (Keen Ice).

Asked if the defeat stung, Blasi said, “If you don't learn to turn the page in this game, you're going to be a miserable human. What's done is done. Move on.”

Epicenter is expected to have an easy half-mile work at Churchill Monday before vanning to Baltimore Tuesday.

Asmussen won the Preakness in 2007 with 2007-2008 Horse of the Year Curlin and in 2009 with Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra.

Un Ojo (Laoban), upset winner of the GII Rebel S., missed the Kentucky Derby with a foot bruise, but was declared on track for the Preakness following a five-furlong work in 1:02 Saturday at Churchill Downs.

“The next day after we didn't enter [the Derby], he was pretty good,” trainer Ricky Courville said by phone from his Copper Crowne Training Center base in Opelousas, Louisiana Sunday. “We were soaking the foot a couple of days and Tuesday morning he got really good. We just gave him the rest of the week, soaking it, making sure, and went on and sent him back to the track Derby morning. He's been training since. It was just unfortunate. Monday [entry day] he wasn't 100%; Tuesday he was.”

Calumet Farm's Happy Jack (Oxbow) will be getting blinkers back on for the Preakness following his 14th-place effort in the Kentucky Derby.

“In the Derby, you're trying to navigate 1 1/4 miles against 19 other horses,” trainer Doug O'Neill, who won the Preakness in 2012 with I'll Have Another, said. “By taking the blinkers off, I thought it would give him a chance to get a little breather.”

Happy Jack wore the blinkers in his first career start and broke his maiden at Santa Anita Jan. 22. O'Neill kept them on in the Feb. 6 GIII Robert B. Lewis and the colt finished last in the field of five, beaten 27 1/4 lengths. The hood came off in the Mar. 5 GII San Felipe S. and Happy Jack was third, beaten 10 1/2 lengths. They were back on in the GI Santa Anita Derby and he was third again, finishing 12 1/4 lengths behind Taiba (Gun Runner).

“He is kind of a grinder,” O'Neill said. “I think he has to be more involved early. Hopefully, with a shorter field, a better post position and with the blinkers on, he can be more forwardly placed. He's a trier and a stayer, and I think he can make up more ground more forwardly placed.”

Happy Jack galloped at Churchill Sunday morning and is scheduled to arrive at Pimlico Tuesday.

“Knock on wood, he's doing well,” O'Neill said.

The post-position draw for Friday's GII Black-Eyed Susan S. and Saturday's GI Preakness S. will be streamed live Monday from Citron beginning at 4:30 p.m. on: www.facebook.com/Preakness/ and twitter.com/preaknessstakes/. In Spanish, go to: https://youtube.com/HipicaTV/live.

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Ricky Courville Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Heading into the GII Rebel S. a lot of people may not have known the name Ricky Courville. That's the way it is when you're a small-time trainer based in Louisiana who, going into the Rebel, had never had a graded stakes winner, let alone one in a $1-million race.

They know who he is now. Courville pulled off the upset of the year when winning the Rebel with 75-1 shot Un Ojo (Laoban), a one-eyed horse who now has enough points to make it into the field for the GI Kentucky Derby.

Courville was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to tell his story and the story of a horse who has surpassed all expectations after losing by 24 lengths in his first career start.

A former jockey who began training in 2008, Courville went to work for owner Cypress Creek Equine, breaking babies and training some of their cheaper horses. Eventually, owner Mike Moreno started giving him some of his better horses to train. But Courville didn't make the trip to Oaklawn for the Rebel, leaving his son Clay in charge. He tried to watch the race on his phone, but said the picture froze.

“My son calls me and he's just screaming on the phone, he's just hollering and screaming,” Courville said. “Then I started getting texts and phone calls for hours after the race. I never got to watch the race until 10:00 that night.”

Courville said the fact that Un Ojo is missing his left eye hasn't caused any serious problems.

“Running, he's fine,” he said. “Handling him around the barn is different. You have to watch it because it's on the side you handle him from, on the left side. Actually, when he first came in, he was really, really timid and he would brush up on you. He put himself against you where he could feel you because he couldn't see you. He wouldn't walk on the side, he'd walk behind you and nudge you with his nose all the way around the barn. But on the track, it took him a long time to really get comfortable. He was maturing late, but once he started running there haven't been any problems. He'll go inside, outside. It doesn't matter to him.”

Courville said that Un Ojo will run next in either the GI Arkansas Derby or the GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, the Pennsylvania Horse

Breeders Association and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the latest twists in the Bob Baffert story and speculated whether or not he will win his legal battle and be able to compete in this year's GI Kentucky Derby. They also discussed last week's stakes action and the story of D. Wayne Lukas winning the GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn with Secret Oath (Arrogate) and previewed this coming weekend's action.

Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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