TRYIN’ TO CATCH UP: Midnight Interlude (left) will look to become the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to win the Kentucky Derby without racing as a 2-year-old. (AP)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Never bet a horse whose trainer has vomit on the tips of his shoes. That’s the handicapping advice for Saturday’s 137th Kentucky Derby offered by Hall of Fame horseman Bob Baffert, who has run 22 horses in the Derby since 1996, winning with three of them.
So it was a good sign there wasn’t a speck on Baffert’s topsiders yesterday morning after Midnight Interlude, who will be his 23rd Derby starter, splashed five furlongs over the sloppy track in 1:00 4/5. Working in company, the bay son of War Chant galloped out six furlongs in 1:14 and seven in 1:28 4/5.
It was a solid drill, but afterward Baffert did not exude the confidence he did before his first Derby victory in 1997, when he told everyone to “bet the farm on Silver Charm.”
If you were playing this year’s Run for the Roses strictly off each horse’s last race, Midnight Interlude would be the pick. In the April 9 Santa Anita Derby, going a mile-and-an-eighth for the first time, he ran down the hard-hitting Comma to the Top by a head in 1:48 3/5, the fastest of all the Derby preps.
But Midnight Interlude is a latecomer to the Derby scene. He broke his maiden on March 20, after not making his first start until Jan. 29. No horse since Apollo in 1882 has won the Derby without racing as a 2-year-old.
“[Midnight Interlude] is still green,” Baffert said. “He’s doing a little catch-up, learning how to run. Once he got in front of his workmate, he wanted to shut it down.
“He’s a horse who needs a target. In the Santa Anita Derby, when Comma to the Top took off from him, he was completely lost for a few jumps. Then all of a sudden he realized he had one more horse to catch.
“But believe me, on Saturday he’ll have plenty of targets.”
Baffert admitted that while Midnight Interlude might have the ability to win the Derby, his inexperience is a drawback.
“Hopefully, we can break that Apollo thing,” Baffert said. “You need horses that are moving forward and can get the mile-and-a-quarter. In the Santa Anita Derby he was rolling at the end and didn’t take a deep breath.
“But I’m just glad to be here with a horse like him. He’s doing well. Whether he can take the next step forward, we’ll find out. If he gets jostled around in a big crowd, I don’t know how he’s going to react.”
The day before Midnight Interlude won his maiden race, Baffert’s lightning-fast colt The Factor became the hot horse for the Derby with a six-length romp in Oaklawn Park’s Rebel Stakes, his third win in a row and first going a distance.
But The Factor never made the lead as the odds-on choice in the Arkansas Derby and faded to seventh. He had a throat operation after that race and was withdrawn from Derby consideration.
“It was very tempting [to run The Factor in the Derby] because that horse is so talented,” Baffert said. “When he won the Rebel, everybody got excited, but I was not really convinced. He looked brilliant that day, but when he came back he was blowing pretty hard. Then we tried to rate him in the Arkansas Derby, and that was a disaster. You can’t go into the Derby off a horrendous race.”
