Essential Quality Lands Blue Grass With Determined Run

Like Nyquist   and Seattle Slew  before him, Godolphin's Essential Quality  heads to Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs as an Eclipse Award-winning juvenile male champion with an unblemished record at 2 and 3.

Whether he can win the Run for the Roses, as Nyquist did in 2016 and Seattle Slew accomplished in 1977, will be determined in less than a month—but he showed April 3 in winning the $800,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) at Keeneland that he is a legitimate favorite for the American classic.

Essential Quality wore down a stubborn pacesetter in Highly Motivated  to win by a neck in the 1 1/8-mile contest, the last of six graded stakes Saturday at the Lexington oval. It didn't come easily.

The Blue Grass was short on pace, setting the stage for a horse to try to take advantage by going to the lead, and Highly Motivated attempted those tactics. Breaking better than he had in his preceding start when third in the one-mile Gotham Stakes (G3), he went to the front beneath Javier Castellano with splits of :23.83, :48.21, and 1:12.08.

Essential Quality, under Luis Saez, chased the pace, a style that the colt had used successfully last fall in the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland.

He mount turned up the pressure leaving the second turn, but Highly Motivated initially turned him away, maintaining a lead with a mile in 1:35.97 before being worn down in the closing furlong. The winner hit the wire just in front, timed in 1:48.50 for the distance on the fast main track.

"That other horse was fighting, and I thought we weren't going to get him," Saez said. "But I always had faith in Essential Quality. He's a nice horse. No matter how fast or slow the pace, he always wants to be first at the wire."

Saez won four races Saturday, surpassed only by jockey Joel Rosario, who rode five winners, four in stakes. Saez won his second Blue Grass following Brody's Cause   in 2016.

A 3-year-old homebred son of Tapit  , Essential Quality improved to 5-for-5. Four wins have come in stakes, topped by the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G1) during his 2-year-old campaign. This year, in his only other start before the Blue Grass, he won the Southwest Stakes (G3) by 4 1/4 lengths in the slop at Oaklawn Park.

"It's a tremendous feeling," said trainer Brad Cox. "He had to dig in today. It was probably what he needed. It was good for him to get a good test today. He did everything easy enough in his last race. I was proud of what he was able to overcome today. Big effort."

He spoke highly of Highly Motivated, a stakes-winning Into Mischief   colt, who finished 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Rombauer  in third. 

Essential Quality and Highly Motivated "really duked it out the whole way. It set up for both of them, and they both responded well," Cox added. "That was a good race four weeks out (before the Kentucky Derby). Four weeks from today. Hopefully we're ready."

The Klaravich Stables-owned runner-up, trained by Chad Brown, held Essential Quality at bay until the final sixteenth of the Blue Grass when he swapped leads while weakening slightly.

"I'm so proud of my horse and the way he did it today," Castellano said of Highly Motivated. "Easy fractions on the lead, he galloped along—that's the first time he did two turns. We tested him a little bit to see how far he could go, and he did it. He tried with one of the best horses in the country, and I give all the credit to the winner. But I would never complain with my horse and the way he did it."

Essential Quality picked up 100 Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying points in the Blue Grass to move into first on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 140 points. Highly Motivated grabbed 40 points for second, advancing his total to 50, enough to secure Derby entry based on historical trends.

Rombauer and fourth-place Hidden Stash  also earned points. They garnered 20 points and 10 points, respectively, to move their overall tallies to 34 and 32. 

Churchill Downs uses points as its preference system for Derby entry when the race overfills beyond its capacity of 20 horses.

Rombauer and Hidden Stash's point totals leave them on the Derby bubble, ranked 21st and 23rd, respectively, following action across the country Saturday. Two points races remain next week, notably the Arkansas Derby (G1), which has a points structure identical to the Blue Grass.

There are typically defections in the weeks leading up to the Derby, clearing the way for horses not originally among the top 20 to gain entry.

Twenty-three horses have exited the Blue Grass to become Kentucky Derby winners, according to Churchill Downs publicity. None have done so since 2007 when Street Sense   rebounded from a second-place finish in the Blue Grass to win the Derby for owner Jim Tafel.

Street Sense was also a 2-year-old champion, and like Essential Quality, was trained by a Kentucky-based trainer in Carl Nafzger.

Cox keeps his main stable at Churchill Downs, where Essential Quality regularly trained last year. The trainer grew up two blocks away from the Louisville track.

Essential Quality, an earner of more than $2.2 million, has raced once beneath the Twin Spires. His maiden victory came at Churchill in his debut Sept. 5 on the undercard of the 2020 Kentucky Derby.

Last year's Kentucky Derby was postponed from its traditional date on the first Saturday in May due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Essential Quality is the lone winner and the second starter of five foals from the Elusive Quality  mare Delightful Quality . Among her younger foals, she has an unnamed Uncle Mo   2-year-old filly. She was reported bred to Nyquist for 2021.

Seven times stakes placed, including once in a grade 3, Delightful Quality is a half sister to Folklore . The latter was the winner of the 2005 Alberto VO5 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and that year's champion 2-year-old filly.

Video: Toyota Blue Grass S. (G2)