Kentucky Derby Maiden Watch: Fromanothamutha drops in class, nabs victory
Coady Photography
January 17th, 2022
Did you know three of the last five Kentucky Derby winners failed to break their maidens before the middle of January?
It’s true. Always Dreaming (Jan. 25), Justify (Feb. 18), and Country House (Jan. 17) were all late-maturing colts who rose from start-of-the-year obscurity to Kentucky Derby glory in less than four months. The takeaway? The 2021-22 Road to the Kentucky Derby might be well underway, but it’s not too late for lightly raced and unraced Derby contenders to arrive on the scene.
With this in mind, let’s review a couple of noteworthy three-year-old maiden winners from last week’s racing action. You never know if one might develop into the Kentucky Derby winner.
Fromanothamutha
Exiting a seventh-place finish in the Remsen S. (G2) Dec. 4 on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, Fromanothamutha found maiden special weight company much easier to handle on Thursday at Aqueduct.
#winner #FROMANOTHAMUTHA goes gate to wire impressively @TheNYRA today under @jockeyfranco & conditioned by @HandalRacing . proud of our son of @LanesEndFarms stallion #unified 📷: @AdamCoglianese @coglianesephoto #bluelionthoroughbreds #goUnifiedgo pic.twitter.com/ZdG2eT4LAQ
— Blue Lion Thoroughbreds (@BlueLionRacing) January 13, 2022
Favored at 3-10 for trainer Raymond Handal, Fromanothamutha had little difficulty beating five rivals. After carving out splits of :23.23 and :46.93 under jockey Manny Franco, the son of Unified finished fast (sprinting the final three furlongs in :35.72) to draw off and win by 4 1/4 lengths.
Fromanothamutha completed the seven-furlong sprint in 1:22.65, a flashy performance bound to produce solid speed figures. Aqueduct's Gotham S. (G3) is reportedly next on the agenda for Fromanothamutha, who campaigns for the partnership of Blue Lion Thoroughbreds, Craig Taylor, Peter M. Rinato, and Raymond Handal.
Shinnecock Hills
A stoutly bred son of Quality Road out of a mare by Birdstone, Shinnecock Hills produced a winning effort in his debut sprinting seven furlongs at Tampa Bay Downs on Friday.
Can a horse's sire indicate which race conditions he or she will relish?@J_Keelerman certainly thinks so!
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) September 29, 2021
He explains 👇 https://t.co/6F0AeqAzs6
With jockey Pablo Morales in the saddle, Shinnecock Hills wasn’t in any hurry to get going, settling as many as 10 lengths behind early fractions of :22.47 and :46.64. But as the pace decelerated through a final three furlongs in :39.06 seconds, Shinnecock Hills rallied boldly and held off stablemate Macallan to win by a nose in 1:25.70.
The final time wasn’t especially quick, but the top two finishers pulled 4 1/2 lengths clear of the rest, and Shinnecock Hills is bred to improve with distance and maturity. The Todd Pletcher trainee might be a talented colt in the making for WinStar Farm, CHC, and Siena Farm.
