Abrumar, wearing the red cap with the white R for owner Ken Ramsey, went on to finish second in Ellis Park’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Nashville Derby. (Coady Media photo)
Abrumar will run in Saturday’s $3.1 million DK Horse Nashville Derby
by Tim Wilkin
As he sat outside his barn at Saratoga Race Course last week, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was asked how much of a presence he would have at the seven-day meet at Kentucky Downs.
“A lot,” he said. “We are going to run a lot of horses there.”
Joseph said he hopes to have “north of 30” horses at the meet.
“I try to encourage all my owners to go there,” Joseph said. “With the purse money they offer, it’s a meet that more and more people want to run there.”
Joseph will have a presence in the richest race of the all-turf meet, the $3.1 million, Grade 3 DK Horse Nashville Derby, which will be run Saturday at 1 5/16 miles. Abrumar, owned by Ken Ramsey, will start from post position 2 and will be ridden by Edgard Zayas. He was installed at 15-1 on the morning line, set by Kentucky Downs oddsmaker Nick Tammaro.
Abrumar has won three of eight career starts on the grass. The Nashville Derby will be his second try in a graded stakes race. He was 10th in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, May 4.
In his last race, the 3-year-old colt was second in the Kentucky Downs Preview Nashville Derby at Ellis Park on Aug. 3. That race was 1 1/8 miles, the longest he has ever run.
“He is a solid horse,” Joseph said. “He won a couple of races at Gulfstream earlier this year, ran bad at Churchill and ran third at Pimlico (James Murphy Stakes) with not the best trip. He ran well at Ellis the other day and that kind of bodes well going further this time. It’s an unknown, but I liked the way he ran the last time.”
