McPeek Discusses His “Road to the Derby Day” entrants at Fair Grounds

By Joe Kristufek —-

Courier Journal Photo

Catching Up with Kenny

McPeek Discusses His “Road to the Derby Day” entrants at Fair Grounds

New Orleans, La (Jan. 18, 2025) – Coming off a dream year in which he won both the Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan and the Kentucky Oaks with likely Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, trainer Ken McPeek in the process of sorting out a new set of 3-year-old prospects. He has multiple horses entered in both the Lecomte & Fasig-Tipton Silverbulletday, and he recently discussed the merits of each.

“Mobetterthangood & Maximum Promise (Lecomte) are two peas in a pod. They’ve been working together and test each other pretty good. We thought Maximum Promise might be good enough to take us to the Breeders’ Cup, but he had a shin issue coming out of the Ellis race. In his first race, Mobetterthangood wrapped himself coming out of the gate, got beat up pretty good and still won anyway. He came out of it a little banged up, so we had to stop on him for a period too. We had a few options but decided to put them both in the Lecomte to see how they match against proven horses. Get going, get a race under their belts and find out where they settle class-wise.”

“Paul Fireman (Fern Circle) is in on the ownership of both Golden Gamble and Gowells Delight (Silverbulletday). I don’t want to run them against one another. I might run them both, but I’m leaning towards scratching Gowells Delight and sending her to the Martha Washington. I really thought Golden Gamble could have won the Untapable. We were too far back and the winner (Her Laugh) got too easy of a lead. She had too much to do. She came rolling and actually galloped out in front.”

“Hypnus (maiden special weight route, race 7) is a beast. I think I don’t think he’ll have any trouble handling the distance and I think I have him fit enough to win first time out. It’s his first race. We want to give him a little education out there. We’d like to sit in the second flight and make a run with him. Our early expectations are that he’s a stakes horse. His mother (Dream Tree) is a grade one winner. I trained the second dam (Afleet Maggi). She was a graded stakes-type filly, but she got hurt on a transport trailer and never raced again.”

“Champagne Rose (Marie G. Krantz Memorial) is going to have a learning curve. She’s been racing in Brazil over a one-turn course and this will be her first try around two. This is a good first step to see how she fits.”
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About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, one of the nation’s oldest racetracks, has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, La, Fair Grounds, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN), also operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 15 off-track betting parlors throughout Southeast Louisiana. The 153rd Thoroughbred Racing Season–highlighted by the 112th running of the Louisiana Derby–will run from Nov. 22, 2024 through March 23, 2025. More information is available online at www.fgno.com.