Jockey Julien Leparoux who guided Daddy Nose Best to victories in both the El Camino Real and Sunland Derbies (both gr. III), will be reunited with the son of Scat Daddy for the Preakness Stakes (gr. I).
Pimlico Race Course officials announced the move May 16.
The Eclipse Award-winning jockey rode Daddy Nose Best in eight consecutive races at six different tracks since July 2011. He opted to stay with leading contender Union Rags in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), finishing seventh.
Leparoux was aboard for all four of Daddy Nose Best’s victories for trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Bob and Cathy Zollars. He won the El Camino Real by a nose in February over the Tapeta main track at Golden Gate Fields. The bay colt then returned in the Sunland Derby March 25 in New Mexico to claim his first victory on dirt by three-quarters of a length. Daddy Nose Best's other two wins came on turf at Saratoga Race Course and Churchill Downs.
Daddy Nose Best finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby with Garrett Gomez aboard. The colt walked the shedrow at Barn 38 at Churchill Downs Wednesday and was scheduled to be shipped to Baltimore later in the morning.
Bob Zollars said that he and Asmussen waited a week before deciding to try the colt in the Preakness.
“We just determined that we felt like he had completely bounced back,” Zollars said. “As much as you can make a determination of that, he appears to be ready to go. It’s a short turnaround. I was concerned how well he would bounce back. We’ve done blood work on him and checked him out. He’s very perky, so we think that he’s ready to run again.”
Daddy Nose Best, a $35,000 Keeneland September yearling buy in 2010, has a career mark of 4-2-1 in 11 starts with earnings of $633,623. Bred in Kentucky by Patricia Ann Elia Trust, he is out of the Thunder Gulch mare Follow Your Bliss.
