B. Wayne Hughes thought he had a Kentucky Derby horse.
He just didn’t think it would turn out to be Greeley’s Galaxy.
“Mr. Hughes had another horse he had a lot of confidence in and thought was a little better,” said Glen Stute, son of and assistant to Warren Stute, Greeley’s Galaxy’s 83-year-old trainer.
That other horse is Don’t Get Mad.
Rather than come to Hawthorne Race Course, where Greeley’s Galaxy scored a landslide victory in Saturday’s $500,000 Grade II Illinois Derby, Hughes was in California, watching his hitherto more highly regarded Kentucky Derby nominee, Don’t Get Mad, finish a disappointing sixth in the Grade I $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
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The outcomes of the respective races prompted Hughes to realize that his confidence was misplaced.
Now the owner plans to shell out $200,000 of the $300,000 that Greeley’s Galaxy earned by scoring a 9 1/2-length victory in the Illinois Derby to gain entrance to the Kentucky Derby.
“He sure looks like that type of horse,” said Glen Stute, who along with jockey Kent Desormeaux accompanied Greeley’s Galaxy in his first venture outside Santa Anita. “We have a runner here. I loved the way the horse shipped. We came here on Thursday, he took right to the racetrack and he was the best today.”
Runner-up Monarch Lane and third-place Magna Graduate also made stretch moves, but Greeley’s Galaxy, the 9-5 favorite, made it seem as if they were traveling in slow motion.
His winning time in the 1 1/8-mile race was 1 minute 49.62 seconds, a clocking that was three-tenths of a second faster than that recorded by War Emblem, the 2002 Illinois Derby winner who went on to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Desormeaux, who numbers among his many major victories Kentucky Derby wins on Real Quiet in 1998 and Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000, believes Greeley’s Galaxy is capable of an encore performance May 7 at Churchill Downs.
“Having a talent is a plus, but being mindful is very important,” Desormeaux said. “He’s got a great mind.
“He set himself away from the rest of the field, and you saw him moving along at an effortless pace without a challenger or a target. I can’t imagine a horse doing it much easier than that.”
The romp in Greeley’s Galaxy’s stakes racing debut was his third straight victory.
Kansas City Boy, who was projected as the 7-2 favorite on the morning line, went off the second choice at 3-1 but tired down the stretch and wound up last in the nine-horse race.
“He acted like a nice horse for a couple of races, but the last two he hasn’t given us anything,” lamented Ken McPeek, Kansas City Boy’s trainer.
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