The Derby Winners: PHARRUN PROSPECT

This column will appear regularly in the Black Type Bugler, highlighting the winners of what many trainers refer to as the SIM’s greatest race.

It is certainly the most prestigious race in North America, and arguably the greatest race in the world.  “The greatest two minutes in sports,” as it is called, is held each year, the first Saturday in May.  It’s a trial to even get a horse to the starting gate in Kentucky, much less have a horse come home to win the Kentucky Derby.  Its SIM equivalent, the Bluegrass Derby, holds the same allure for most SIM trainers as the real life version of the event.

To date, we’ve seen seven renditions of the SIM’s greatest race, and the winners have become part of SIM lore.  They’ve earned a grand total of $22,143,002 (for an average of $3,163,286 per winner), and come from all walks of life.  There are the bluebloods.  There are the modestly bred horses.  There are horses who would later go on to shine on the turf, and some who never quite lived up to the hope of their trainers after a Bluegrass Derby win.  One thing that the Bluegrass Derby winners have not been is longshots:  the SIM has seen no huge upsets, with arguably its most famous victor also having the distinction of being the longest shot to ever win, coming home at 11.70-1.

The first winner, however, was a little easier to find.  The fifth choice in the first Derby field, PHARRUN PROSPECT went off at 7.70-1, and after laying midpack through much of the race, staged a stirring stretch drive to catch front running GATLING PROSPECTOR.  The road that Pharrun Prospect traveled to reach the Bluegrass Derby was a little unorthodox, but what would racing be without a healthy dose of controversy?

Pharrun Prospect started life as a modestly bred horse; one of those horses that a trainer looks at, scratches their head, crosses their fingers, and tries to develop into an effective allowance horse.  Luckily for Pharrun Prospect, he also started life as a computer trainee, and it’s hard for a computer to be upset by what would be a dismal first outing in week 173.  Check back six weeks earlier, and it becomes clearly apparent how much the SIM has changed.  Pharrun Prospect is back on the grass, for his sixth lifetime start, at odds of 7-1 on the strength of a 4: 2-1-1 record since his dismal first effort.  He turned in a lifetime best speed figure of 96 (a full 12 points better than his previous best) and turned a few people’s heads with his 5 ¼ length margin of victory over the nine furlongs.  Previously restricted to sprint races, he suddenly had found his calling over a route of ground.

Backed up to a mile and returned to the dirt for his next run, and acquitted himself well at 20-1 in the G2 Rafael Landestroy Stakes, missing by only a half length to PROJECT GLEN, a two year old star from the year before.  1 ½ lengths further back was budding star SCHOOL KRIS(GB), would go on to find a home on turf and earn a reputation as one of the SIM’s all time great campaigners for trainer Theatrical.

Pharrun Prospect received a few presents for his next race, the GI Florida Derby.  First, he got some respect at the windows; he was only 9-1 that day despite still being the 7^th choice.  Secondly, he got an owner.  Now listed in the barn of trainer mpm12, Pharrun Prospect could only manage a fifth place finish under jockey P Chamberlin.  While he was 11 lengths in arrears of the late-charging VELVET BLUSH, he missed third by less than a length: Project Glen, Stupid Kingdom and Pharrun Prospect all are listed as having finished 11 lengths behind the winner. 

The tables were turned one race later in the G2 Arkansas Juvenile, when the Alysheba colt DYNA FORM reasserted his talents after a rough start to his three year old season.  Dyna Form had been unquestionably the previous year’s best two year old, ripping off seven straight wins to start his career, including in that streak the first SIM rendition of the Breeders’ Bowl Juvenile.  While his three year old season to this point hadn’t been stellar, he had faced older horses twice by the time he got to Arkansas, and still sported an excellent (if no longer spotless) record against his own age group.  A one length, front running victory in the Arkansas Juvenile had him back on track.

Two weeks later, Pharrun Prospect broke through for his first major win on the dirt, taking the G3 Colorful Stork Stakes and turning the tables on heavily favored Velvet Blush in a dominating, visually impressive performance (he was a five length victor, while Velvet Blush trailed home 11 lengths behind in fourth, the same margin by which Velvet Blush had beaten Pharrun Prospect in the Florida Derby. 

A final Derby prep, the GI Yugo Astroturf, brought together Gatling Prospector, Dyna Form, Pharrun Prospect, and Project Glen in what promised to be a blockbuster of a race, but from the first call it was apparent that Gatling Prospector had made an easy lead and wouldn’t be coming back to the field.  Gatling Prospector had won the last skirmish before what promised to be a hardfought Derby, with Pharrun Prospect fifth, but trainer mpm12 had Pharrun Prospect ready to run the race of his life.

The Derby was horse racing’s version of a chess game.  Everybody knew that Gatling Prospector would head for the front, but nobody was going to let him steal the Derby the way he had stolen the Yugo Astroturf.  The speedy Project Glenn gave chase, keeping him within striking distance while followed closely by OLIVER PLUS PIT (2^nd in the Yugo Astroturf), long shot SISTER’S KING, GOLD KINGDOM, and Pharrun Prospect laying in 7^th.  Turning for home and facing the final quarter mile, Gatling Prospector had gotten away to a three length lead and 11 three year olds found themselves at gut-check time, needing to find a way to catch the streaking leader.  Jockey V Land went to work on Pharrun Prospector, while P Carrier started to nudge along Prospect Glenn, while N Taber, astride 13-1 longshot SENIOR DANCER, began to see visions of roses dancing in his head as his mount started to gather a head of steam from the back of the pack.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Gatling Prospector was riding a three race winning streak, was the talk of the SIM, and would go on to win the Breeders’ Bowl Classic later that year.  He was to get his picture taken just two weeks after the Derby in the Middle Jewel Stakes, and eventually become one of the SIM’s most talked about (and most maligned) legends, but he was not to be a Bluegrass Derby winner.  That day, nobody’s really sure whether it was the monster effort just a few weeks earlier in the Yugo Astroturf or the pressure from Project Glenn early in the Derby, but it was not Gatling Prospector’s day.  The royally bred son of Storm Cat, arguably the first of the SIM’s bluebloods, would go down in defeat as Pharrun Prospect found his best stride and inhaled the Kentucky stretch, sweeping to a one length victory in 2:02 4/5.

The Bluegrass Derby would be Pharrun Prospect’s finest moments, and though he would race on until age seven, he never recaptures the form that took him to a win in the SIM’s greatest race.  He trailed home an exhausted ninth when beaten 11 lengths in the Middle Jewel as Gatling Prospector exacted his revenge, and the margin was double in the Belmont Stakes as Senior Dancer, the only other horse to make up ground in the Derby stretch, had the first of what would become many moments of fame for the Unbridled colt.

Failing to return to his Derby form on dirt, Pharrun Prospect finally broke through with a G2 win on turf several weeks before the Breeders’ Bowl, where he was solidly beaten in the Breeders’ Bowl mile.  The  following year, Pharrun Prospect was almost exclusively a turf specialist, winning a GI race over 10 furlongs (the Doomben Cup) and finishing 2^nd in a G2 race over 16 furlongs (The New South Wales Cup), but was again solidly beaten in the Breeders’ Bowl mile. 

As a five year old, Pharrun Prospect experienced a renaissance of sorts, and flourished after a switch from trainer mpm12 to zgreat1.  Moved back and forth from dirt to turf with astonishing regularity, Pharrun Prospect nevertheless remade his career and his image.  The old campaigner, once regarded as a deep closer, was now a front runner, and his new abilities served him well, especially towards the end of his five year old year and the beginning of his six year old year, when Pharrun Prospect ripped off seven straight wins.

Inexplicably, the streak ground to a halt when Pharrun Prospect was put on the shelf.  After three years without any sort of break, Pharrun Prospect was away from the races for 87 weeks (more than 1 ½ years).  When he finally returned, he was no longer owned by zgreat1, but by gonesurfin.  While his first run back was a disaster, his second run back showed considerable promise, but he wasn’t given a chance to return to form.  He was quickly retired and bred to hot young sire GIANT’S CAUSEWAY(IRE), leaving MONSTER PROSPECT (9029) to carry on his legacy.  While a talented racehorse in his own right, Monster Prospect has a ways to go from his 13: 2-1-4 record to matching the legend of Pharrun Prospect.