Curlin Colt Hopes to ‘Ride On’ Towards the Derby

Only off the board once in eight starts, Billy Gowan pupil Ride On Curlin (Curlin) hopes to improve on that form Saturday at Oaklawn, where he will attempt to stamp his GI Kentucky Derby ticket in the GI Arkansas Derby. 
The bay has made all three of his sophomores starts at Oaklawn, starting with an allowance win Jan. 12. He then finished third in both the GIII Southwest S. and 
GII Rebel S, Feb. 17 and Mar. 15 respectively. 
“He has been improving,” Gowan said. ” I ran him in an allowance going short because he wasn’t quite fit enough to go a mile. We missed two weeks of training, so he came up a little short in the Southwest [beaten by 10 lengths]. We never missed any training between the Southwest and the Rebel. He got beat less than a length through everything that day. He came out of the Rebel perfect.” 
Ride On Curlin will have a jockey change from Kent Desormeaux to Jon Court, who has won the Arkansas Derby in 2010 and 2011. 
“We just thought we would try a little something different,” Gowan commented. “Jon has ridden for me before. Kent has done a good job, but Jon has a lot of success here and in the Arkansas Derby.” 
Gowan is very confident in his charge’s chances at making it to Churchill on the first Saturday in May. 
“I really believe he will run in the Kentucky Derby,” Gowan insisted. “I think he will get the distance. If we can lay off the pace just a little bit and have a little bit different running style, where we can wait til the end and run at them, I think that will help a bunch. I think he can go 1 1/8 miles and 1 1/14 miles.”