Distance, not slop, slowed down Paddy O’Prado at the finish of the Kentucky Derby

Trainer OK with 3rd in Derby for Paddy O’Prado

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Trainer Dale Romans raved all week about how much his colt, Paddy O’Prado, seemed to enjoy training in the mud.

The slop at Churchill Downs proved to be no problem during Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. The distance, however, was another matter.

Rather than take an early lead as is his typical style, the colt surged from the middle of the pack before running out of steam in the 1 1/4-mile Derby.

“He ran so big for us,” Romans said. “I thought we were going to win. I’m very proud of him. He just ran super. You couldn’t ask for any more from the horse.”

Jockey Kent Desormeaux blamed the finish on early traffic, preventing him from going to the front as he did in a second-place finish last month at the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

“He must have stepped in a hole,” Desormeaux said. “My horse, he ran his heart out. He just didn’t have the luck.”

LAST IN FINISHES AMONG BEST: Make Music For Me didn’t even secure a Kentucky Derby start until earlier in the week when two higher earners scratched. But that didn’t prevent him from becoming factor during the ferocious stretch run.

The colt was running last in the 20-horse field with a half-mile left, but the 30-1 long shot finished with a rush go get fourth place.

“I’m quite happy with him,” trainer Alexis Barba said. “He had me a little worried he was so far back, but I saw him making up ground on the backstretch, but it’s so hard to see the race. I’m delighted with his effort.”

Jockey Joel Rosario said he had no complaints either.

“He’s such an easy horse to ride,” Rosario said. “I wanted to make sure he was clear when he made his run. He ran a good race. Maybe it will help him the next time.”

Barba was bidding to become the first female trainer to win the Derby.

NO PENNANT FOR THE DERBY: Joe Torre has had the horses to get his teams to the finish line first in 12 of the previous 14 seasons. Saturday was a new experience for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 69-year-old manager.

He had his first horse in the Kentucky Derby as a co-owner, and Homeboykris finished 16th.

“I was excited. I get excited every year watching the race, and to have a horse in there made it that much more exciting,” said Torre, who watched the race in his office before the Dodgers hosted Pittsburgh. “We weren’t sure the distance was good enough, but the fact that we were in there was really what our goal was.

“The one thing I found is that you keep trying to keep track of him. Initially, it was OK, but then they changed the camera angle and my horse wasn’t in the top six or seven. So it was tough to keep track.”

Homeboykris went off at odds of 25-1 and finished 54 ½ lengths behind the winner Super Saver.

TOO WET TO PRACTICE: Heavy rain dampened the Derby morning routines for the field of 20 horses and the veterinarian who was going barn to barn checking on them.

Kentucky state veterinarian Bryce Peckham began his checks earlier than usual because races began at 10:30 a.m., and the downpour complicated matters.

“Nobody’s really ready for us at 6 in the morning because they’re not used to it,” Peckham said. “It’s a tough day.”

The soggy conditions canceled morning works on the dirt track. Many trainers, including Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, were out early to watch their horses walk inside their covered barns instead.

“We can’t go to the track, so we just jog them in the shed as best we can and hope for the best,” said Zito, who sent second-place finisher Ice Box and Jackson Bend in the Run for the Roses.

Bob Baffert, trainer of beaten favorite Lookin At Lucky and Conveyance, sought shelter — and coffee — in the backside media center.

Lukas, who trained Dublin, said trainers would have an almost impossible task trying to tell owners their horses shouldn’t run in the Derby, even if the track is muddy.

“I think they’d run over crushed glass,” he joked.

NO PREAKNESS FOR BLIND LUCK: Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has no plans to send Kentucky Oaks winner Blind Luck to the Preakness.

The 3-year-old filly nipped Evening Jewel by a nose in the distaff version of the Kentucky Derby, cementing her status as the successor to superstar Rachel Alexandra.

Yet a year after Rachel Alexandra used a 20¼-length Oaks romp as a springboard to a win against the boys in the Preakness two weeks later, Hollendorfer is skipping the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

“We met our spring goal now, which was to get her to the Kentucky Oaks and now it’s time to set out a plan for the rest of the year,” he said. “I would think she’ll run at least once in New York at some point.”

Does that mean a spot in the Belmont in June? Hollendorfer didn’t say, though he expects Blind Luck to return to Churchill Downs in the fall for the Breeders’ Cup.

AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed to this report.