Kentucky Derby Horses | Whitmore
See profiles of all 20 Kentucky Derby horses at courier-journal.com/briefingbook.
Color: Chestnut gelding (Ky.)
Sire: Pleasantly Perfect
Dam: Melody's Spirit by Scat Daddy
Owner: Robert LaPenta, Harry Rosenblum, Southern Spring Stables
Trainer: Ron Moquett
Jockey: Victor Espinoza.
Record: 2-2-1 in six starts
Road to the Kentucky Derby Points (ranking): 44 (15)
Connections: Moquett, whose stable name is Southern Springs, found and purchased Whitmore privately. This will be his second straight trip to the Derby with LaPenta and Rosenblum, the owners of 2015 runner Far Right. Espinoza will attempt to become the first jockey to win three straight Derbys.
Family ties: Pleasantly Perfect won multiple races at classic distances but as a stallion is most well-known as the sire of Rapid Redux, a horse that won 22 straight starts at the allowance level from 2010-2012. His dam didn't race but is by the recently deceased Scat Daddy, a breakout sire last year with six graded stakes winners.
Last time out: Whitmore rallied quickly in the Arkansas Derby -- just not quite as fast as the winner, Creator. Suddenbreakingnews also got up to beat him for second, but Moquett's horse finished well enough to move on to the Kentucky Derby.
Running style: All spring, Whitmore made major moves from the middle of the pack only to level out in the stretch, coming up short when only strides before he looked like a winner. It could mean Whitmore is more of a one-turn specialist. It could also mean we haven't seen this horse's best.
What to know: The horse is named after Wilbur Whitmore, a talented former high school teammate of Moquett's from their days growing up in Oklahoma. Whitmore - the man - saw his equine counterpart race for the first time in the Arkansas Derby.
In their words: "When you're going a mile and a quarter the first Saturday in May, you're asking a lot of these horses to do something they've never done," Moquett said. "He needs that cocky confidence - that swag, if you will - you need that in these animals to be able to go out there and do something they've never done before. He's got swag all around."