Maiden Trojan Nation Seeks Derby Upset

There are ample longshots in every running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), but one scheduled to make his way into the gate at Churchill Downs May 7 is unique.

No horse likely made more of an improvement in the last Derby preps than Aaron Sones and Julie Gilbert's homebred Trojan Nation did in the Wood Memorial (gr. I).

The Street Cry colt trained by Patrick Gallagher, still a maiden after five maiden special weight starts, went off at 81-1 and rallied furiously from last in the eight-horse field to come up a head short to winner Outwork.

"We were hoping the distance would help him, and we knew it would be a step up, but that was a day with three prep races and we were just trying to look around and see which one on paper we might have the best shot to try," Gallagher said the morning of April 28, before he watched Trojan Nation's final timed workout at Santa Anita Park in preparation for the Derby. "I had just saddled a horse (at Santa Anita) and was watching on television, but at first I was just hoping he'd show up on the screen."

Trojan Nation looked very much like an 81-1 shot early on in the Wood—he found himself 17 lengths back after the first quarter on the muddy track—but his closing drive for second on the rail under jockey Aaron Gryder earned enough points for a Derby start. The Wood is his best result to date. In his previous five maiden tries, Trojan Nation never finished better than third.

"It was a surprise and I was delighted," Gallagher said. "He was sitting back and back, and I was hoping he had a good experience, but when he came around there, he almost got there."

PEDULLA: Outwork Outlasts Longshot in Wood Memorial

If all goes well, Trojan Nation will be the first maiden starter in the Run for the Roses since Nationalore in 1998. Three maidens have won the Derby—Buchanan in 1884, Sir Barton in 1919, and Brokers Tip in 1933—but relatively recent history has not been kind on maiden starters. Only Nationalore (ninth) and On The Mark (eighth, in 1950) have finished better than 10th. Others—Pendleton Ridge (13th in 1990), Great Redeemer (10th, 1979), Fourulla (19th, 1971), The Chosen One (14th, 1959), Flamingo (13th, 1958), Senecas Coin (14th, 1949), and Bert G. (14th, 1945)—have been well out of contention. Trojan Nation will be Gallagher's second Kentucky Derby starter. His first, Domestic Dispute  , finished 10th in the 2003 edition.

"He ran good in the Wood and we earned the points, so the owner said 'Should we give it a shot?'" Gallagher said. "He knows we're a longshot, but he's optimistic about it."

For Sones, who bred the colt in Kentucky out of the Summer Squall mare Storm Song, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1996, getting to the Kentucky Derby has been his plan from the start.

"I bred the horse and my goal all along was to breed a horse to get a mile and a quarter in May," Sones said. "It's all been planned out that way in my mind, even though it sounds insane."

Sones, in an act on the level of treason in the Southern California sports landscape, named Trojan Nation after the mascot of the University of Southern California, despite the fact that he and his wife (Gilbert, also listed as an owner) went to hated rival UCLA. The backstory goes pretty deep, but Gilbert's father, who died when she was in her teens, was a fervent USC supporter and both husband and wife are now USC fans, despite what their diplomas say.

As for his final workout Thursday, Trojan Nation covered six furlongs in 1:12 3/5 under regular exercise rider Helen Isler, with splits of :25, :36 4/5, :48 4/5, and 1:00 1/5, with a gallop out to seven furlongs in 1:27. It was the fastest of 19 works at the distance Thursday. Gallagher said the colt is scheduled to ship to Churchill May 2 and will gallop over the Louisville track for his final preparations.

"He's nice to work," Isler said. "He's very professional with big, long strides. He looks like he's going in slow motion, and that's how he feels."

The way the colt works in the mornings has always shown talent, Gallagher said, which certainly had an impact on the trainer's decision to ship cross-country to run in a grade I as a maiden, but there's also a possibility Trojan Nation may have a reason to improve in his next start. He was gaining on Outwork to the wire in the Wood and may have been hampered by the tight quarters on the rail.

"Maybe, in hindsight, it got a little tight there and maybe he got intimidated for a split second that made the difference, but those are split-second decisions," Gallagher said. "He's a nice-looking, big horse and he's always been that way. He always seems to do it the right way.

"He's showed talent, but he's still a maiden. We didn't think he would be, but he is."

Sones is even more optimistic.

"Since he got back from New York, he's been a different horse. It's incredible," Sones said. "Trojan Nation thinks he won the Wood, so as far as he's concerned, he's not a maiden anymore."