“Sublime” Says J.C. After Ras El Hanout Routs Derby Field

He is a Japanese-bred colt who was named after the top-shelf Middle Eastern spices, and, boy, did the spicy hot Ras El Hanout ever live up to his name in Kentucky this weekend.

The Japanese-bred son of Tanino Gimlet poured it on hot and heavy late, dispensing of his rivals in short shrift at the top of the lane to score what appeared a relatively easy 2 ¼ length victory over the late-charging Skitzoid in Saturday’s 14^th running of the Bluegrass Derby–and he tied the stakes record for the Derby while doing it.

“Sublime,” said one of his owners, J.C., when asked to describe how it felt to win the most majestic and prestigious of all the three-year-old American dirt races, here at Kentucky Race Course this weekend.

For Super Stables’ owners J.C. (whirlwind), Tony (afc) and Laura (topicount), Saturday’s big win was their second Bluegrass Derby triumph. Their first came with Virtuoso, when he eked out a ¼ length win in the 2006 Bluegrass Derby.

There would be no eking out a win Saturday for their second Derby winner ever, however. Ras El Hanout couldn’t have made it look easier if he tried.

And the Japanese-bred colt’s owners are hoping that the red-hot Ras El Hanout can do something Virtuoso couldn’t. And that would be to win all three legs of the Triple Crown and become only the second horse in the history of Derbyfever to do so since I Seek U did it in 2003.

“As long as he is at least ready to go, he‘ll run in the Middle Jewel” said J.C., who said Ras El Hanout came out of the Derby a little groggy. “That may be where we get to see how tough and how much talent he really has.”

Their colt who now has won all five of his career dirt starts also became the first Japanese-bred to ever win a Bluegrass Derby, and he came oh so close to setting the Derby record when he crossed the wire in a time of 2:00 4/5, tying the stakes record set by 2011 winner Indy Storm Cat.

It was a very unique Bluegrass Derby in 2012, one that set a few precedents along the way.

First of all, the only filly in the race, the highly-touted Street Etiquette, went off as the post-time favorite, becoming the first filly to ever do so in the fourteen runnings of the Bluegrass Derby.

With odds of a little over 9/1, Street Etiquette was also the only runner in the field of 20 to have single digit post-time odds.

“Derby odds are always difficult to understand and predict,” said J.C. “especially with a 20-horse field. Ras El won at 15/1, and, if I recall, Virtuous won at 17/1. Frankly, I don’t really pay attention to them.”

What J.C. was paying attention to was Saturday’s Derby. He just had settled into his routine of watching the stables’ races, when the phone rang. “I had just started to watch the races, when my cell phone rang, and I saw it was Tony. That means something good or something bad usually happened. I told him, ’Don’t say a word. I just started watching races. Call you later.’”

What J.C. saw he liked–very much, in fact–although a few things in the race gave him a little cause for concern.

Ras El Hanout broke alertly, never being much farther than about six lengths off the early leader, Street Etiquette, at any call in the race.

“I was slightly concerned early, thinking maybe he was a bit closer to the pace than I would have liked,” said J.C. “But he was really wasn‘t out of his normal running style.”

Indeed, the son of Tanino Gimlet looked very comfortable and never had to overcome any sort of trouble in Saturday’s race. He got an easy trip, and he simply laid back, content to let Street Etiquette tear up some fairly fast fractions on the front end.

“The early pace played right into his wheelhouse,” said J.C.

While Street Etiquette was being pushed early by 19/1 long shot Lookin At Hotrod as the horses crossed the wire the first time past the grandstand, Ras El Hanout was caught running wide–very wide, in fact. The colt was nearly in the center of the race course and he had a wall of horses in front of him.

As the horses moved into the clubhouse turn, Ras El Hanout was still very wide, and he still had a wall of horses in front of him, but he really wasn’t being bumped or jostled or crowded on either side.

Down the backstretch, he settled into a comfortable trip, and when Street Etiquette rolled into the far turn on the lead, Ras El Hanout began to navigate his position. A hole opened up in front of him when Major Alex began to tire and drift out, and Ras El Hanout darted through the hole left by that one and set dead aim on Street Etiquette about midway through the far turn.

By the time the horses were three furlongs from the wire, Ras El Hanout and Lucky’s Franklin both had caught Street Etiquette, and it looked like those two might duke it out to the wire.

But jockey J. Caves pushed Ras El Hanout’s “go” button, and by the time the horses reached the top of the lane, it looked like the colt from Super Stables was going to make a rout of this fourteenth Bluegrass Derby.

He was clear of the field by that point as the horses straightened up in the home stretch, and Caves set Ras El Hanout down for the drive.

By the time he reached the wire, Ras El Hanout was practically in geared down mode, and he had just become the first Japanese-bred to win the Bluegrass Derby in a stakes record-tying time.

“After he collared the filly at the 3/8 pole and blew by her, I thought the race was over,” said J.C. “His final ¼ seemed effortless. In fact, he makes it all seem so effortless, I really don’t think he’s been tested yet”

Ras El Hanout did have to hold back a very late charge from second place finisher Skitzoid, who began his run from dead last a little late, but that one never really seriously threatened the Derby winner. Skitzoid made a game run, to be sure, but he was still 2 ¼ lengths behind Ras El Hanout when he crossed the wire.

After making a pretty game charge at Street Etiquette on the far turn, Lucky’s Franklin was third, about six lengths back, after being unable to sustain his charge at the filly. And Weekly Express and Chief Rainmaker practically crossed the finish together fourth and fifth, about 8 ½ lengths behind a very impressive Ras El Hanout.

Street Etiquette, after dueling for the lead, set fractions of 46.79 at the four-furlong marker and 1:10.62 at the six-furlong marker. But she just didn’t have enough left in the tank the last 3/8, and she ended up fading to ninth after her attempt to become the first filly to win the Bluegrass Derby failed.

Ras El Hanout paid $33.80, $15,10 and $12.80 across the board to his backers. He and Skitzoid provided a 15-19 $2 exacta payout that was worth $563.40 to holders of that winning ticket. And the trifecta of 15-19-11 with Lucky’s Frankling third paid a whopping $8,263.50.

“I did the Bluegrass Derby with Trotter this year,” said J.C., when he was asked which horses concerned him most before the race. “I was pretty familiar with the field. I predicted the filly would get cooked on the front end. The horses I really liked were Platero’s colt Proust and Runninlast’s colt Silverton. And if the right horse in Skitzoid showed up for the stretch, I thought he could be dangerous.”

It turned out that J.C. didn’t have to worry much at all, because, like he said, Ras El Hanout made it look pretty easy in winning the 14^th Bluegrass Derby.

And as for that Bluegrass Derby record-tying trip, a very cool J.C. said, “Winning is a lot more important. When I saw the time, I looked at the past Derby winners and realized he had tied the stakes record. I didn’t think that was any big deal. Virtuoso (the stables’ other Derby winner) won it in the slowest time, but that didn’t change the feeling.”

Ras El Hanout, who has a very turfy breeding, being by Tanino Gimlet out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Covent Garden started his career on the turf at Delaware and Pennsylvania race courses, running his first five races on that surface.

He didn’t break his maiden until his third start, in South Carolina, of all places, way back in August of last year. After that, he would have one more try on the turf, a fourth place finish in a listed stakes in North Dakota.

Super Stables ran Ras El Hanout in some pretty off-the-beaten-path places in order to get to the winner’s circle in the pantheon of American three-year-old thoroughbred dirt racing Saturday, Kentucky Race Course.

After that fourth place finish in that listed stakes in North Dakota, the decision was made at Super Stables to switch the eventual 2012 Bluegrass Derby winner to the dirt, a surface he has never lost on–nor one he has ever been really tested seriously on.

“I thought he could be a contender when he won his first graded stakes race at the end of his juvenile season,” said J.C., referring to Ras El Hanout’s triumph in the Grade 2 Club Stakes here at Kentucky Race Course back in November of last year. “His next race (a triumph in the Grade 2 Giant Slayer Classic in Denmark) sealed the deal, and from there we had to plan carefully and get him here in good shape and not over-raced.”

So the colt who ran in South Carolina, North Dakota and Denmark along the way to the Bluegrass Derby winner’s circle turned to his final prep before the Derby with a convincing three-length score in the Grade 2 Land’s End in Eastern Kentucky.

It was startling to realize after he won Saturday’s race that this Bluegrass Derby was his first Grade 1 stakes attempt, and that Ras El Hanout had somehow managed to skip all the usual major preps and Derby Lock races to get here, but get here he did. And he handled it convincingly and in a very professional fashion on Saturday.

The delighted co-owner of Saturday’s big race described his feelings after the race, holding nothing back about both of Super Stables Bluegrass Derby wins.

“Winning the Derbies was an incredible rush,” said J.C. “The first time (with Virtuoso) was vindication, after all the negative crap we had to deal with in the beginning of Super Stables. Winning it with our first crop of juveniles was sweet. This time was sweet, but believe me, you never get tired of winning the Derby. Super Stables has always been about juveniles and spring classics. It’s how we keep score.”

It’s been a very good score for Super Stables, too, over the years. The connections have had at least one runner in each of the last seven Bluegrass Derbies. The other runner in this year’s Bluegrass Derby was Doctor Sax, who finished well back in the field Saturday.

“Five weeks ago, Tony said he didn’t think he had ever been more confident with a horse going into a Bluegrass Derby, and since we have had a Derby

horse the last seven years, that says a lot. I felt pretty good about him, and I felt he had a pretty good chance against come very good horses.”

J.C. talked a little about the unique Japanese breeding of Ras El Hanout, the first such breeding to win a Bluegrass Derby.

“I was bored one afternoon. I had noticed that Tanino Gimlet was available for points late in the week, and I thought I would take a chance trying him with a decent back-end pedigree. He is from the Roberto line and other than Dynaformer, there aren’t many alternatives to keep the line going. I breed most of the Super Stables horses, and every year I put together my list of sires to use for the coming year, and he was not on my list,” said J.C.

J.C. said the top sires in the game have changed quite a bit in the past couple of years, with the sons of Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer being old. “We have to find the right grandsons to carry on.”

J.C. said he thinks with the globalization of the game that most of the elite sires are Euro or Australasian. “And if you are going to be successful, you have to adapt. We thought he would be a turf runner, and he was okay on the turf. But sometimes you see horses that run well on one surface and hit the board but have no wins. And when you switch surfaces, they sometimes just take off. Funny thing though, I have said all spring that I will probably never go back to Tanino Gimlet. What are the chances of repeating with another horse? And lo and behold, the 2,000 Guineas winner was also by Tanino Gimlet. Think he is going to be available for points later in the week after the day he had yesterday?”

J.C. talked about the unique name of the 2012 Bluegrass Derby winner, Ras El Hanout. “The name?” laughed J.C. “As many people know, I think you have to give a horse a real racehorse name, not something goofy. Who knows? Maybe they run to their pedigree and their name. In the Middle East, every chef and spice shop has a special secret mix for meats and rice. And the top shelf spices are Ras El Hanout.”

It is, indeed, a very fitting name for a real racehorse, a top-shelf racehorse,

now that he’s won the 2012 Bluegrass Derby. And he might just be one that you will hear a lot more about as the 2012 Bluegrass Triple Crown Trail continues.

After all, J.C. seems to think his colt hasn’t been tested yet, and when a long-time veteran of the game says that about a horse, you know they just aren’t blowing smoke.

This one might be the real deal, and who knows? If you throw in the right spices in this particular recipe, we might just be looking at our second Triple Crown winner in Ras El Hanout in about five weeks.

There are more than a few people who believe this particular Japanese-bred named after Middle Eastern spices has the ability in him to do exactly that–make a serious run at a Triple Crown.