Bob Black Jack, the runner-up to Colonel John in the April 5 Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), drilled a half-mile at Churchill Downs late Monday morning in :48 3/5. Trainer James Kasparoff was on hand to give jockey Richard Migliore a leg up on the colt at Barn 45.
Bob Black Jack went to the track at about 9:15 a.m., well after the other Derby contenders had gotten in their morning exercise. The wait was on Migliore, who took a red-eye flight from California to Cincinnati, and then had to fly from Cincinnati to Louisville. He made it to Churchill Downs just after 9 o’clock.
Bob Black Jack was ponied to the track by Kim Carroll, wife of trainer David Carroll, and he broke off from his pony at the six-furlong marker as Kasparoff watched from the elevated clocker’s stand on the backstretch. Migliore let the son of Stormy Jack (by Bertrando) pick it up on his own and they took off at the half-mile pole. They were caught in splits of :12 1/5, :24 1/5, and :36. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.
“I wasn’t looking to get too much into him,” Kasparoff said after the drill. “He just had his big work at Santa Anita.”
Bob Black Jack worked six furlongs in 1:10 4/5 over the synthetic surface at Santa Anita April 21.
“If this was Saturday, I might have gone five eighths, but it’s Monday now and we’re running on Saturday and I felt like this might be a little safer,” Kasparoff said. “At this point, we’re here and I don’t want to get too aggressive. He just ran a mile and an eighth and that three-quarters at Santa Anita was plenty.”
A California-bred out of the Native Prospector mare Molly’s Prospector, Bob Black Jack was bred by Gary Howard, Marlene Howard, and Bruce Dunmore. He races for Jeff Harmon and Tim Kasparoff. A winner of three of seven starts, with earnings of $442,925, Bob Black Jack third behind Georgie Boy and fellow Derby starter Gayego in the San Felipe Stakes (gr. II) prior to the Santa Anita Derby. He has two stakes wins, both against Cal-breds.
