Super Saver Wins the Kentucky Derby

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Race For Education nominated, Super Saver,with Calvin Borel up, took the lead in the stretch while coming up along the rail to win the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) by 2 ½ lengths. WinStar Farm’s homebred son of Maria’s Mon gave trainer Todd Pletcher his first Derby win.

Borel's victory makes him the first jockey to win the Derby three times in a four-year span. The Churchill Downs-based rider was aboard Street Sense   in 2007  also nominated to The Race For Education and Mine That Bird last year.

Super Saver covered the 1 1/4 miles of the Derby over a sloppy track in 2:04.45. Ice Box rallied to finish second, a neck ahead of Paddy O'Prado in third.

Super Saver came to the Derby off a neck loss to Line of David in the April 10 Arkansas Derby (gr. I). In his 3-year-old debut he was third, beaten a half-length by Odysseus and Schoolyard Dreams in the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III). Last year, the colt won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (gr. II) at Churchill Downs under Borel.

This is the first Derby victory as an owner for WinStar, Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner’s farm on Pisgah Pike in Woodford County, Ky. And their second as a breeder. They bred 2003 winner Funny Cide.

As an owner, WinStar had 10 runners in the Derby prior to this year, with their best running coming in 2006 with a runner-up effort from Bluegrass Cat  .

Super Saver is out of the A.P. Indy   mare Supercharger, who traces back in tail-female line to grade I winner Dance Number, a blue hen mare for the Phipps family and a direct descendant of the great La Troienne. Supercharger’s dam, Get Lucky (by Mr. Prospector), is a full sister to Travers (gr. I) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner Rhythm.

“It’s a joy,” Pletcher said right after the race of getting his first win. “People said we had one with our name written on it. I didn’t take anything for granted. It feels awfully good.”

“This colt has just been getting better and better,” Pletcher said. “We were kind of playing catch up earlier in the year, but after the Arkansas Derby, he just really moved forward.”

Even with the wet and blustery conditions, attendance for the Derby was 155,804, the sixth largest crowd for a Kentucky Derby.