Derby Post # 15: Peacenik

With odds only a hair longer than the two horses co-favored at 11-1, and as the number three ranked three year old colt, Peacenik qualifies as one of the obvious contenders

The Stable:  Oaklawn66 is a 15% barn that has had a very nice year.  Already the stable has earned $1.4 million and over 500 breeding points.  The stable recently went over the 100 win mark, and currently has 103.  Besides Peacenik, they also train the stakes winning turfer El Nino Rapido, the 10-win claimer Antonio’s Song, and high percentage fillies Elalysian and Di Prima.

The Breeding:  Peacenik is from the first sim-crop of Peace Rules.  Peace Rules already has seven stakes winners, though Peacenik is the only one of them to have shown such success in dirt routes.  Peacenik seems to thrive at longer distances, but that is not at all common for his half-siblings. In fact, Peacenik accounts for over 75% of the total routing earnings from Peace Rules sim-get.

According to Trotter, Peacenik has a dosage index of 4.14, and only one Bluegrass winner has had a DI greater than 4.00.

The dam is Big N Tall, winner of 11 races in 44 starts.  All of those wins came in sprints.

The breeding was done by Big N Tall’s owner SimonD3, a 14% trainer I assume is affiliated with Oaklawn66.

Past Performances:  Peacenik has seven wins in 15 starts and five wins in his eight routes.  He broke his maiden in his third start.  All three tries had nice figures for a two year old, so he trailered to Oaklawn’s home track to try a stakes.  Two races later he tried his first route and took to it like a bubble takes to the surface, and he ended his two year old campaign winning three of the last four, including his first graded win, the Rumson Stakes, where he beat three other Derby horses.

In his three year old season he has two wins, a second and a fourth, all in stakes.  In his last five races, Peacenik has beaten Lovely Sheep, Ermington Pegasus (twice), Rhibus (avenging an earlier loss), San Pellegrino, Remember Tampero(twice),  Half a World Away (twice), and K’s Rumor Has It.  Other than his earlier loss to Rhibus, he has not been beaten by any other Derby horse.

Running Style: Peacenik likes to run from midpack and close late.

Recommendations: Very live contender.  Why this son of Peace Rules likes the distance is mystery, but it seems to have happened.  You can’t let your ticket not include this one.