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April 7, 2007


KING OF THE ROXY DEAD GAME SECOND IN GRADE 1 SANTA ANITA DERBY,
OHIO-BRED COLT WILL SKIP KENTUCKY DERBY IN FAVOR OF PREAKNESS,
“HE RAN TOO GOOD TO LOSE,” SAYS JOCKEY AGENT RON ANDERSON



King of the Roxy proved he could handle two turns in Santa Anita Derby.
King of the Roxy ran a winning race on Saturday in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, when he went down by a half-length in the final strides to Tiago, a Pleasant Top half-brother to the 2005 Kentucky Derby hero Giacomo.

The Todd Pletcher-trained colt, sent off as the 3.60 to 1 third choice behind Pletcher’s 2.4 to 1 public choice Sam P. and Doug O’Neill-conditioned 2.70 to 1 second choice Liquidity, finished 2 ¾ lengths clear of Starlight Stable et al’s Sam P., who had a length to spare over Liquidity.

Riding to instructions, jockey Richard Migliore had the Team Valor colorbearer on top after the break, but eased him back off the early pace and kept him wide, as sprinter Black Seventeen and Liquidity set the tempo.

King of the Roxy was rated fourth, about 2 to 3 lengths off the pace, halfway down the backstretch. Rounding the turn, Corey Nakatani aboard Liquidity kept taking looks behind him to see where the danger might arise.

Liquidity made the lead turning into the homestretch and was quickly collared by King of the Roxy just before the eighth pole. When The Mig asked the Ohio-bred for his best lick, the Littleexpectations colt kicked it into high gear, as he quickly swept past Liquidty and opened up about a 1 ¾-length advantage.

Tiago, however, was rolling late between horses, became a huge threat in the final 70 yards and drove past King of the Roxy in the final strides. The winner ran a 100 Beyer and “Roxy” ran a 99, one point better than achieved earlier in the afternoon by Nobiz Like Shobiz in the Wood Memorial and Cowtown Cat in the Illinois Derby.


Todd Pletcher continues to be
amazed by the Ohio-bred colt.
Ron Anderson, agent for Migliore, said “Your colt ran too good to lose. When Liquidty chucked it so readily, suddenly your colt had no target. He was tired, but if he had something to run at, he would have kept going. The winner had you as a target and that is why he won.”

Barry Irwin said “Conditions on Saturday were not in our colt’s favor. I am not making excuses for him. He doesn’t require any because he ran a dynamite race.

“But having spent the last two weekends in Los Angeles, I can tell you that neither the racing surface nor the climate was the same as the previous weekend when Fairbanks won so impressively.

“This Saturday, the track was playing slower. One of our racing partners said he was told by a member of Santa Anita’s management that the stretch had been dug up earlier in the week. I don’t know if they dug it up or whether the water just wasn’t drying out as quickly, but it was heavier and slower and playing more to closers than to speed horses.

“The air was heavy and thick. It drizzled off and on during the day. You take a horse stretching out to a trip that is somewhere near the outer limits of his stamina and make him run on a dead track in heavy air, and he is not going to perform as well as on a light track in an arid climate.”


King of the Roxy grudgingly gave way in the shadow
of the wire in Saturday's Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
After the race, King of the Roxy pulled up to a walk at the end of the homestretch, as the remainder of the horses galloped out around the turn to the backstretch.

Barry Irwin hustled down to the track to speak with Migliore and assistant trainer Mike (Whitey) McCarthy. “He’s fine,” said The Mig. “He was just dead tired.”

Final time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:49 ½ , with the last furlong accomplished in a pedestrian :13 ½ seconds. The previous quarter-mile, where most of the action took place, was a much more solid 24 3/5 seconds.

“Considering that he had just one elongated sprint under his belt and he had only run long once before when wiped out on the first turn in the Breeders’ Cup last year,” Irwin said, “he ran huge. And he was entitled to get tired. I think if Migliore had ridden him before or if he rides him again, he will know to delay the colt’s final surge. It was a great race for both horse and rider, all things considered.”

Irwin also said that the modestly-bred colt impressed Todd Pletcher, who being a disciple of D. Wayne Lukas is naturally impressed with blue-blooded pedigrees and expensively-bought yearlings.

“He is a funny horse, because he is so lazy in the morning,” Pletcher said. “He is very difficult to gauge. But today he showed what an enormous talent he is. That was a tremendous race today. He impressed me today.”

Except for the colt’s racing debut, in which he did not wear blinkers, and his Breeders’ Cup debacle, in which he was sawed off going into the first turn, King of the Roxy is an amazingly consistent colt, finishing first or second in the rest of his starts. The $150,000 he earned on Saturday swelled his lifetime gleanings to $466,400.

King of the Roxy is a double Grade 2 winner and now he is Grade 1-placed to boot.

“Everybody that attended the race at Santa Anita seemed to have the same reaction,” reported Irwin. “They were disappointed not to have won, but they were very proud of their colt.”