He's unbeaten and untested in five races, so every discussion about the 134th Kentucky Derby revolves around the 2007 2-year-old champion, War Pass. After beginning his 3-year-old season at Gulfstream with a runaway over a very bad field, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner returns Saturday in another easy spot, the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby. Another romp there looks most likely. Yet War Pass' strength, his blinding speed, could lead to his undoing on the first Saturday in May. There's usually plenty of cheap speed in the Derby, and if War Pass gets caught up in an early duel, he could be taken down. His owner, Robert LaPenta, admits he's thought about it.
"You're always concerned about somebody sending out a rabbit, like they did in the Belmont with Smarty Jones, when a bunch of horses went after him," LaPenta said Tuesday on a conference call. "He certainly does not like horses next to him or in front of him. So when that happens, we'll have to see how he does."
LaPenta expressed confidence that War Pass' quality and his trainer provide major edges. "I think War Pass is a very special animal," he said, "and I think he's going to surprise a lot of people with his stamina." Among them would be students of pedigree, who wonder how a horse sired by sprinter/miler Cherokee Run out of a Mr. Prospector mare will handle 1 1/4 miles. Cherokee Run did run second in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, though, and the pedigrees of Derby winners Smarty Jones and Funny Cide didn't scream distance, either.
Nick Zito has won the roses twice, with deep closer Strike the Gold (1991) and front-runner Go for Gin (1994), and was fifth in 2004 with LaPenta's first Derby colt, The Cliff's Edge. "There's nobody better at preparing a horse for the Derby than Nick Zito," LaPenta said. "War Pass had a very aggressive 2-year-old campaign [four races in three months], and we're just hoping to have him at his best on Derby Day."
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