Tom Drury | Horse Racing Free Tips

Art Collector to Runhappy Ellis Park Derby

Bruce Lunsford’s GII Toyota Blue Grass S. winner Art Collector (Bernardini) will run in the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby Aug. 9, trainer Tom Drury told the Ellis Park notes team.

The Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, with its purse doubled and distance extended from a mile to 1 1/8 miles, this year carries GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points. The winner receives 50 points toward qualifying for the Sept. 5 Derby, a number that virtually assures a spot in the 20-horse field at Churchill Downs. The runner-up receives 20 points, with 10 for third and five for fourth. Art Collector, by virtue of his 100-point win in the Blue Grass, is safely in the Derby field already, which had Drury considering training the colt up to the Run for the Roses.

“Bruce kind of left the decision up to me,” Drury said. “I felt we needed to go somewhere, and that was our only option. Before I said too much, I just wanted to make sure my horse came out of the Keeneland race OK and everything was in good order. Now that we’re back on the track and seeing him train, gosh, if anything it seems like he’s better. The timing of it is going to be good leading up to the Derby. That’s the ultimate goal, and we’re going to try to take our best shot.”

Added Lunsford, “You could try to train him up to the Kentucky Derby. That’s a long eight weeks. You don’t want to start working horses quick; you might as well just have a race. We’ve got four weeks to get ready. There are a lot of things I love about Ellis anyway, and it gives me a chance to give back. They’ve always been good to me. Every time I’ve been in politics, I’ve won every time in Henderson. I know a lot of people down there. And I think [jockey] Brian [Hernandez, Jr.] and Tommy are excited about doing this.”

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Blue Grass-Winning Trainer Drury Tells His Story On TDN Writers’ Room

It took a long journey for trainer Tom Drury to get to where he is now, with a GII Toyota Blue Grass S. winner and major GI Kentucky Derby contender in his barn. There were years when Drury didn’t win any races, which had him questioning whether he was made out for the training business. But life is good now for Drury, largely thanks to a Bruce Lunsford homebred named Art Collector (Bernardini), and he joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday to talk about his prized pupil and his bumpy ride to success.

Calling in as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Drury was asked how he came to train Art Collector, who ran the first five races in his career for Joe Sharp. The colt was transferred to Drury by owner/breeder Bruce Lunsford following his disqualification from an allowance victory for a levamisole positive under Sharp.

“I’ve been working for Bruce for a long time. We had Madcap Escapade for him as a 2-year old,” Drury said of his time assisting longtime Lunsford trainer Frankie Brothers. “I’ve always done more behind the scenes kind of work, legging up young horses and taking horses when they needed a break and things of that nature. Along that path, he’s always left a few horses with me to race and given me some opportunities to win some really nice races. He contacted me and just said he was going to be shuffling the deck a little bit and wasn’t exactly sure which horses were going where, and just asked if I could help him out, which we were obviously happy to do. Art Collector was one of those horses.”

As for Art Collector’s temperament and development, Drury commented, “He’s really been easy. He’s just a very kind, classy individual, nothing seems to rattle him. He just kind of fell right into the routine. Gosh, he’s probably been as easy of a horse to train as I’ve ever had in the barn. I would definitely tell you that the horse handled Saturday a whole lot better than the trainer did. He’s just been a pleasure to work with.”

Drury has walked a winding road to where he is now, and he recalled some of the tougher times, saying, “It took me a while to figure out what my niche was going to be in the business. I kind of had to do the same thing my dad did. I had a few horses, but I had to gallop on the side to cover the expenses. It’s just been slow coming. There were some years that we didn’t win a race and the opportunities weren’t happening. You think to yourself, ‘Man, what did I do here?’ At one point, I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it as a trainer, but fortunately things turned around and here I am. It’s been good stuff. We never gave up. Finally things just started to kind of go the right way.”

Elsewhere on the show, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers discussed the outbreak of COVID-19 among the jockey community and looked forward to the Saratoga meet. Click here to listen to the podcast and click here to watch it on Vimeo.

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Bloodlines: Art Collector Preserves Greentree Stud Lineage

With a stylish 3 1/2-length victory over leading 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on July 11, Art Collector has moved into a position as one of the leading classic prospects of 2020 and is unbeaten in three consecutive races.

Actually, the handsome bay has finished in front in each of his last four races, stretching back to a blowout victory in a Nov. 30 allowance at Churchill Downs. After winning by 7 1/2 lengths, however, Art Collector was subsequently disqualified for the presence of a prohibited substance.

Transferred to trainer Tom Drury after that, Art Collector has continued his march to excellence with allowance victories this season on May 17 and June 13 at Churchill Downs, then skipped down I-64 to test those very positive-looking results against graded stakes company at Keeneland.

Never farther back than third in the 13-horse field, Art Collector had the lead at the stretch call and widened away from his competition to win in 1:48.11. Swiss Skydiver held second by 4 3/4 lengths from Rushie, and the form rather emphatically places Art Collector in the hunt for Kentucky Derby in September.

Bred in Kentucky by Bruce Lunsford, Art Collector races for his breeder. In taking his fourth official victory from eight starts, Art Collector became the first stakes winner for his dam, the Distorted Humor mare Distorted Legacy. She won three races at three and four, including the Sky Beauty Stakes at Belmont, and more importantly, Distorted Legacy was also second in the G1 Flower Bowl.

Distorted Legacy is one of two stakes winners out of the Private Account mare Bunting, who was second in the G1 Alcibiades Stakes. This is a family that performed nobly for decades at Greentree Stud and that got its start in the States with the importation of the Prince Bio mare Bebop, a half-sister to Oaks winner Sun Cap (Sunny Boy). Bebop herself had been third in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.

Bred to Greentree's Horse of the Year Tom Fool, Bebop's first foal was Bebopper, the first of eight consecutive fillies out of the dam, including stakes-placed Stepping High (No Robbery), the dam of multiple stakes winner and leading sire Buckaroo (Buckpasser). Bebopper did the most good for Greentree, however, with the major winners Stop the Music (Hail to Reason) and Hatchet Man (The Axe).

Stop the Music won the Dwyer and the Saratoga Special, then inherited the 1972 Champagne after Secretariat sort of intimidated him during the stretch run. Hatchet Man was later maturing than his half-brother but won the Dwyer at three, then also the G1 Widener and Haskell at five.

These were Bebopper's third and fourth foals; the mare's 11th foal was Flag Waver (Hoist the Flag), who won the 1983 Rampart Handicap at four and is the third dam of Art Collector. Flag Waver's first foal was stakes winner Abidjan (Sir Ivor) and her sixth was stakes-placed Bunting, the second dam of the Blue Grass winner.

Lunsford bought into this family with the acquisition of Bunting as a 3-year-old filly in training at the 1994 Keeneland November sale for $500,000. Bunting's first foal for Lunsford was the Storm Cat horse Vision and Verse. A rangy bay, Vision and Verse didn't win a lot of races but had a lot of class, winning the G2 Illinois Derby and finishing second in the G1 Belmont Stakes and Travers, third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The horse earned more than $1 million and went to stud in Kentucky at Hill 'n' Dale Farm.

Bunting had a trio of black-type daughters, and the best of these was Distorted Legacy. Her sire, Distorted Humor, threw some speed into this very classic family, and even so, the best distance for Distorted Legacy was 10 to 12 furlongs. In addition to a good second to Stacelita in the Flower Bowl at 10 furlongs, Distorted Legacy was fourth, beaten a length for the victory, in the Breeders' Cup Filly Turf.

So there should be little concern about Art Collector's ability to handle the 10 furlongs of the Derby, and this colt is following the well-worn path of improvement laid down by Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and so many of his descendants, with good to reasonable form late at two, then radically accelerating improvement at three.

This is a classic colt winning a classic prep in the proper style, and he appears to be a potential masterpiece for the owner, trainer, and family.

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‘Whole Package’ Art Collector Jumps To Fourth In NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll

The story of Art Collector in his first two starts of 2020 was one of quiet progression with the son Bernardini winning both efforts against allowance optional claiming company. In the aftermath of the colt's 3 ½-length victory in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on July 11, Art Collector is anything but under the radar as evidenced by his climb up the ranks in the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top 3-Year-Old Poll.

On the strength of earning his first career graded stakes triumph, Art Collector earned 242 points from voters to move into the No. 4 position on the poll after previously being ranked 28th. The Tom Drury, Jr. trainee is now unbeaten in three starts during his sophomore campaign after beginning his career on the turf during his juvenile season.

“He's very versatile, very classy. He's just the whole package,” said Drury, who celebrated the first graded stakes win of his career with Art Collector's Blue Grass triumph.

Art Collector was the only new presence in the top 10 of the Three-Year-Old Poll this week. Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law continues his hold on the lead position with 39 first-place votes and 399 points as he readies for an expected run in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on August 8.

Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P. (1 first-place vote, 357 points) remains in second followed by graded-stakes winner Authentic (244 points), who is expected to be among the favorites for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on July 18.

Belmont Stakes runner-up Dr Post, who is also expected to contest the Haskell Invitational, sits fifth behind Art Collector with 180 points while King Guillermo (148 points) ranks sixth. Uncle Chuck, winner of the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on July 4, is seventh with 118 points followed by Blue Grass Stakes runner-up Swiss Skydiver (110 points). Grade 1 Acorn Stakes winner Gamine (108 points) is ninth with Max Player (60) completing the top 10.

Champion Midnight Bisou, who returned to the worktab on Monday for the first time since her victory in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes on June 27, spends yet another week atop the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll with 22 first-place votes and 369 points. Grade 1-winner Tom's d'Etat (9 first-place votes, 334 points) is second with Met Mile hero Vekoma (2 first-place votes, 294 points) holding down the third spot.

Monomoy Girl, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2018, jumped up to the fourth position with 1 first-place vote and 142 points in the wake of her victory in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes this past Saturday. Zulu Alpha (134 points) moves up to fifth on the heels of his win in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes followed by Mucho Gusto (133) and By My Standards (130).

Tiz the Law remains the lone sophomore in the Top Thoroughbred Poll with 2 first-place votes and 118 points to sit eighth while Code of Honor (1 first-place vote, 98 points) and Maximum Security (3 first-place votes, 95 points) complete the top 10.

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 both the Top Three-Year-Old Poll and the Top Thoroughbred Poll is scheduled to be conducted through the conclusion of the Breeders' Cup in November.

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