Authentic Preps for Kentucky Derby With Mile Workout

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Authentic Preps for Kentucky Derby With Mile Workout
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Photo: Chad B. Harmon
Authentic wins the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park

A day after an Aug. 24 workout at Del Mar was abandoned shortly after it began, Authentic completed his penultimate workout toward the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs by breezing a mile at Del Mar in 1:38 3/5 Aug. 25.

The TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) winner began his workout early on the backstretch and traveled easily for the first three-quarters of a mile. Near the customary finish line, where many horses conclude their works before galloping out, he was asked to pick up the pace for another final quarter-mile around the clubhouse turn. That completed a full circuit around the track. 

"I wanted to get a nice strong work in him. He did it the right way, within himself," said his trainer, five-time Derby winner and Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.

The prior day Baffert was watching trackside when, a furlong into the colt's workout, the track warning siren sounded, indicating a loose or injured horse. So Baffert radioed his exercise rider on Authentic, instructing him to pull him up.

"He went like a quarter of a mile by the time he pulled up. It was no big deal," Baffert said. "We brought him home and just started all over."

The injured horse Monday at Del Mar was Irreproachable, Daily Racing Form reported. The Phil D'Amato-trained 4-year-old gelding had made two starts, the most recent of which was a second-place finish in a local maiden claiming $50,000 race July 24.

Irreproachable was catastrophically injured, the second racehorse fatality of the summer at Del Mar, according to California Horse Racing Board online records. Both occurred during training.

Though Authentic's workout was delayed 24 hours, giving him a tighter five-day window to his final pre-Derby workout Aug. 30, Baffert does not anticipate it affecting the colt's preparation. He and stablemate Thousand Words leave on a flight to Kentucky Aug. 31 to prepare for the Derby.

Also headed to Louisville, Baffert said, is Gamine, the expected favorite for the Sept. 4 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and multimillionaire McKinzie, who goes in the $400,000 Alysheba Stakes (G2) on the Oaks undercard. McKinzie won the 2019 Alysheba.

Baffert said he views his 3-year-olds as threats in the Derby, though understandably not with the same confidence as when he started American Pharoah  and Justify , standout colts that would win the Derby on their way to capturing the Triple Crown in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

"I really like Authentic and I think (Thousand Words) can get the mile and a quarter," the trainer said. "I've learned so much about him. With no fans, I think that will help him because he's a little bit of a head case."

Both are three-time stakes winners. Authentic, a son of Into Mischief  now owned by Spendthrift Farm, MyRaceHorse Stable, Madaket Stables, and Starlight Racing, won the San Felipe Stakes (G2) and Sham Stakes (G3) earlier this year, months before the July 18 Haskell.

Thousand Words, by Pioneerof the Nile, captured the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2), Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3), and the Shared Belief Stakes for owners Albaugh Family Stables and Spendthrift Farm.

John Velazquez has the mount on Authentic while Florent Geroux rides Thousand Words.