LOUISVILLE — Last week Larry Jones, who trains Friesan Fire for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, was having dinner with John Velazquez, then scheduled to ride Quality Road in the Derby, and his agent, Angel Cordero Jr. They agreed their colts would run 1-2 but did not agree in which order.
“I really thought Quality Road was the horse to beat,” Jones said yesterday after hearing the news that the Florida Derby winner will not run for the roses.
With his principal opponent out of the way, Jones’ confidence got another boost when Friesan Fire, winner of three stakes this year at the Fair Grounds including a runaway score in the March 14 Louisiana Derby, fired a bullet five furlongs in :57.4 at Churchill Downs with jockey Gabriel Saez in the saddle.
“The idea was to make sure he’s tight and getting over the track,” Jones said. “Gabe thought he went in a minute, so apparently he was skipping along well.”
Friesan Fire, by the long-winded supersire A.P. Indy out of the champion Australian racemare Bollinger, will be Jones’ third Derby starter after he finished second the previous two years with Hard Spun and the star-crossed filly Eight Belles. In 2007, when Hard Spun scorched five furlongs in :57.3, critics lambasted Jones for working him too fast.
Then last year Eight Belles, who tragically broke down after the race, sizzled five in :58.1. So Friesan Fire’s blazing workout hardly raised an eyebrow.
“We’ve never been afraid to march to the beat of a different drummer,” said Jones. “With this horse, we’re following in Hard Spun’s footsteps.”
Derby handicapping rules have been falling like flies the past several years, and Jones hopes that trend continues. Friesan Fire is coming to the Derby off a seven-week layoff, and he’s never raced a mile-and-an-eighth — both no-no’s — but Hard Spun hadn’t run in six weeks, and Eight Belles’ longest race was, like Friesan Fire’s, at a mile-and-a-sixteenth.
“This year, we’re going to break two rules at one time,” Jones said. “Friesan Fire’s pedigree says a mile-and-a-quarter is his cup of tea, and because he’s a fresh horse, if he wins the Derby we’re in good shape for the Triple Crown.”
Jones, wanting to spend more time with his grandchildren, is retiring from training after the Breeders’ Cup, and won’t be back at the Derby for years, maybe forever, “unless they want to run the race in Montana.” He weathered a storm of unwarranted criticism after Eight Belles broke down.
“You don’t know if you’ll ever get over it,” Jones said.Given all he’s been through, Jones was asked if the racing gods are on his side.
“Well, we’ve been blessed to run second the last two years,” he said. “But if they want to shine on me Saturday, I’ll be grinning from ear to ear.”