Mor Spirit Move Pleases Baffert, Stevens

Two Hall of Famers are heading into the May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) without the pressure of sending out a spotlight horse, and May 2 both were in good spirits after working together to put Michael Lund Petersen's Mor Spirit through his final pre-race work at Churchill Downs.

The Eskendereya ridgling worked five furlongs in :59 4/5 under jockey Gary Stevens for trainer Bob Baffert, starting about three lengths back of workmate Jimbo Fallon, and finishing even. Mor Spirit was clocked in splits of 12 2/5, :23 3/5, :35 2/5, and :46 4/5. He galloped out to six furlongs in 1:13 1/5. 

"He's very deceiving, a big, long-jumping horse," Baffert said. "He's fast. He looks ready to me."

"Bob wanted a half-mile time in :49, just get him around there happy," Stevens said. "He got really aggressive going to the 4 1/2 pole and I hollered to David Lopez (on Jimbo Fallon). I said 'Get going, buddy,' because my horse grabbed me. David went on, I got control of my horse, and heading into the stretch, he turned into Pac Man and was giving me all I wanted. He wanted to do more than I let him, and Bob said to let him gallop out to (seven furlongs). I didn't know we went :59 and change. I thought we went 1:01. When I'm 2 seconds off on a good horse, that usually turns into a good thing."

Baffert's Kentucky Derby experience this season comes with decidedly less weight than a year ago, when he sent out eventual Triple Crown winner American Pharoah   and third-place finisher Dortmund.

"I had those two good horses. Pharoah at Oaklawn Park when he won (the grade I Arkansas Derby), he was like the 'Wow' prep, and Dortmund was coming in undefeated, so we knew we had two really good chances," the trainer recalled. "Down deep, I knew that could be my last chance to win a Kentucky Derby. It's so hard to get here. We've been in 16 of them now (and) so fortunate to have won four. You have to be so lucky, and I was just so relieved when we finally did get engaged again and win the Derby (last year)."

Mor Spirit will look to rebound off back-to-back losses in his final two Derby preps; a far-back second to Exaggerator over a sloppy track in the April 9 Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), and a runner-up finish to Danzing Candy in the March 12 San Felipe (gr. II). As a 2-year-old, he took the Los Alamitos Futurity (gr. I) after running second in the Kentucky Jockey Club (gr. II) off a second-out maiden score. In the first start of his sophomore season, he won the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. III).

"Everyone thinks of him as a plodder, and me and Martin Garcia have been the only ones on his back," Stevens said. "I know what I'm sitting on. I know what's there. Bob has been real conservative with him through all his races. I was surprised when he brought him back here for the Kentucky Jockey Club when Martin rode him. He was second on a sloppy track that night and really performed well on short notice. He came back three weeks after breaking his maiden and then flew, raced at night in the mud for the first time, and still ran second. I thought, 'This is a Derby horse, if he can handle all that.' And Bob said the same thing."

"He looked great today," Baffert said. "He moves over the surface here much better than Santa Anita, and that's half the battle, that they like it. I've brought horses here before that were just never comfortable with it, but he looked great today. He's coming into the race the right way, and he tries hard. He runs every time. Right when you think he's not running, all the sudden he'll put that head down. I feel that he's in a position where he's going to run his race, and we'll see if he's good enough."