LOUISVILLE – For the first time in history, two runners in the Kentucky Derby will be saddled by female trainers, and both of those colts had their final blow-outs yesterday morning at Churchill Downs. Trainer Dick Mandella also sent out 2-year-old champ Action This Day for a quick lick down the stretch.
Looking to be the first winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to wear the roses, Action This Day – winless in three starts since the Cup – drilled a smart three furlongs in :35.1, galloping out another furlong in :48.2.
“We wanted him to go off easy and finish up the last eighth,” Mandella said. “The [exercise rider] said he went like a Cadillac.”
Kristin Mulhall, who at 21 years old could become the youngest trainer to win the Derby, rode her colt, Imperialism, two furlongs down the lane in :24.4, out three-eighths in :38.
“I heard somebody say it looked like he wasn’t getting hold of the track, but he felt great over it,” said Mulhall, who grew up riding show horses. “When I galloped him in the slop the other day, he loved that. I’m kind of hoping it rains.”
Song of the Sword, who arrived from Keeneland yesterday, breezed three furlongs in :35.4 for Big A-based trainer Jennifer Pedersen. Track clockers listed the work as four furlongs in :49.2.