Derby horse walks Monday, as Kentucky trip gets organized

ST is following Fair Hill-based 3-year-old Toby’s Corner to the Kentucky Derby, chronicling his life and his training, bringing readers details about the horse and serving up a small taste of what it’s like for his connections as he gets ready for the Grade I Derby at Churchill Downs May 7.

Monday, May 2
If Toby’s Corner knows he’s headed to the most important Thoroughbred race in North America, he doesn’t show it.

Monday morning at 7:20, he stood in his stall wearing a blue and red Herringswell Stables cooler and waited. His stall had been half-cleaned, and would soon get fresh straw. He looked like any number of his neighbors up and down the shedrow. Unlike them, however, he’s getting on a van for Kentucky tomorrow morning and will run in the 137th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs Saturday.

Owned by Dianne Cotter and trained at Fair Hill by Graham Motion, Toby’s Corner has completed a nearly four-week trek from the Wood Memorial to the Derby. There isn’t much left to do. Only opportunity awaits.

Of course, Toby’s Corner would rather simply have a mint. He’s a horse and when he sees visitors at the stall door he turns his hips, slides his shoulders, stretches the wall chain to the front and presents the universal “Feed me something good” face – ears up, eyes soft, lips smacking. The mints are in a red cup on the floor outside the stall and he knows it. The crinkling wrapper brings more effort and he happily scarfs it down, gone. Then he licks his lips, lets the guests pat him on the shoulder and rub the side of his muzzle (perhaps the softest surface known to man). It’s 9-year-old Nolan’s last pre-race visit with the Derby horse, this time before school.

“What if he wins?” said Nolan, who suggested we save the mint wrapper (I fished it out of the trash can).

After his 6-furlong workout Sunday, Toby’s Corner will be handwalked in the barn today. Easy day. He’ll pick some grass outside, head back to Fair Hill Equine Therapy to stand in the cold saltwater spa. Then he can snooze the day away while looking for someone else to fish a mint out of that red cup.

Tomorrow, he’ll jog on the track early and get on the van for Kentucky. The truck is tentatively scheduled for 7 or so, but the details will be confirmed. He’ll be accompanied by a few stablemates headed to weekend races in the Cooper Horse Transportation van for the 665-mile trip. Motion thought about sending the horse for a jog today and leaving first thing Tuesday morning, but called a slight audible.

“He’ll just walk today because I want him to jog tomorrow so he does something before he gets on the van,” said Motion. “He seems fine today.”

Most importantly, Toby’s Corner stays in his routine as long as possible. The weather sounds awful in Louisville, but it’s been relatively dry and clear at Fair Hill. Motion did not adjust one day of training due to weather, while using the training center’s Tapeta surface for nearly all of his training, including Sunday’s work.

**PHOTO: Toby's Corner and James Slater gallop easily before Sunday's workout (Jack Clancy).

Click for previous Toby's Corner Journal Entries.

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