Domestic Product – Kentucky Derby Context

A midpack stalker, Domestic Product overcame a tough trip in traffic behind a glacial pace in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) on March 9, getting up determinedly to prevail by a neck. The dark bay colt broke his maiden going a 1 1/8-mile distance at Aqueduct last October and moved forward nicely this season from his first stakes attempt, a seventh in December’s Remsen (G2). Domestic Product opened 2024 with a rallying second in the Holy Bull (G3) at Gulfstream, overtaking odds-on Fierceness in the stretch, and he’s been caught behind slow paces in both stakes appearances this year. But he skipped a traditional prep for the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby, training up to the race off an eight-week layoff, and Domestic Product’s lower Speed ratings are also a concern.

Owner: Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stakes is unplaced from three Kentucky Derby starts, Practical Joke’s fifth in 2017 being the best result and coming in partnership. A billionaire financial expert and noted philanthropist, Klarman has campaigned a pair of Preakness (G1) winners under the recognizable Klaravich silks, Cloud Computing (2016) with William H. Lawrence and Early Voting (2022) as sole owner, and Chad Brown trains most of his horses.

Trainer: Chad Brown finished fourth with his initial Kentucky Derby starter, Normandy Invasion in 2013, and the 45-year-old conditioner from upstate New York has compiled a 7-0-1-1 record in the Run for the Roses, finishing second (Good Magic in 2018) and third (Zandon in 2022) with two of his last three starters. A two-time winner of the Preakness, Brown has captured 18 Breeders’ Cup races and earned four Eclipse Awards for leading trainer. He also will be represented Sierra Leone, a leading contender in the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby for a different ownership group.

Jockey: A five-time winner of the Eclipse Award for leading jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr. seems destined to eventually win a Kentucky Derby. The 31-year-old native of Puerto Rico has captured the Belmont (G1) twice and won 19 Breeders’ Cup races, but the record-setting jockey has yet to hit the board from seven Kentucky Derby mounts, Improbable’s fourth in 2019 being his best result. 

Breeder/Sales: A Kentucky-bred, Domestic Product will be the second Kentucky Derby starter as a breeder for Klaravich Stables, who also campaigned homebred Highly Motivated, ninth in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

Sire: After opening his three-year-old season with seconds in Fountain of Youth (G2) and Blue Grass (G2), Practical Joke finished fifth in the 2017 Kentucky Derby for Klaravich and Brown. The bay horse is by two-time Kentucky Derby-winning sire Into Mischief and out of a mare by Distorted Humor, sire of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide. Practical Joke proved versatility as a racehorse, placing in four graded stakes at two turns, but he recorded all five wins at one-turn distances, including a trio of Grade 1s. And while he’s been best known as a sprint/middle-distance sire, producing current multiple Grade 2-winning sprint star Skelly, Practical Joke is responsible for 2023 Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Practical Move, a top contender for the Kentucky Derby before being withdrawn due to an illness.

Dam: An unraced daughter of Grade 1-winning millionaire Paynter, who missed the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but finished a neck second in the 2012 Belmont, Goods and Services hails from the Cherokee Run mare Indian Legend, a six-furlong stakes winner, and Goods and Services counts sprint stakes winner Kenda as a half-sister.

Top Brisnet Speed: 91
Top Brisnet Late Pace: 125