In the fifth start of his career, East Avenue picked up some valuable experience ahead of his start in the $5 million Kentucky Derby (G1) May 3 at Churchill Downs.
As it happens, that fifth start was a runner-up finish in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland—one of the traditional final preps ahead of the Derby. It's not necessarily the type of race one would normally view as an educational opportunity, but Godolphin homebred East Avenue has not had a typical path to the season's opening classic.
On that twisting and turning path, talent has never been a question. The son of Medaglia d'Oro blitzed nine other juveniles in his debut last August at Ellis Park, opening a clear lead at first call then adding to that advantage at each point of call on his way to an eight-length romp.
Trainer Brendan Walsh was impressed enough to enter East Avenue in the Breeders' Futurity (G1) for his next start. In that stakes and two-turn debut, East Avenue replicated his maiden performance, adding to his lead at each point of call for a 5 1/4-length win and a rocket ride up Derby watch lists.
But East Avenue's talents were about to face adversity. He lost all chance when he stumbled badly at the start of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) and finished ninth. Then, in his highly anticipated 3-year-old debut, East Avenue stalked from second early before fading to 10th in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
That all led to the Blue Grass where East Avenue opened a clear advantage but then battled in the stretch before Burnham Square prevailed by a nose. While the outcome didn't go his way, Walsh was glad to see that grit.
"I think he got an awful lot out of that," Walsh said. "He knuckled down, he fought hard. He ran a good race. He set really good, strong fractions and at the end of it he still found some more. He wasn't dead at the wire either."
Walsh noted that East Avenue and Burnham Square ran together for another furlong past the wire. It's the type of race Walsh thought his horse needed. Even though East Avenue wasted no time securing a grade 1 victory at 2, becoming the first top-level winner for his dam, Dance Music, who is a half sister to 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish , he hadn't been fully tested in his early career.
With young horses in general making fewer starts in today's racing, combined with the specific circumstances of East Avenue not getting out of the gate well in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and then being off form in the Risen Star, he needed some seasoning. But with his talent and the Derby on the horizon, he also needed qualifying points.
As it turned out, the Blue Grass provided both in that battle through the stretch.
"I think he redeemed himself to a certain point in the Blue Grass. Last year he didn't learn an awful lot. In those first two starts he just went out on the lead and never saw another horse," Walsh said. "Sometimes these horses have to get in a fight, and they have to get beat a time or two to be seasoned horses for the Derby. I feel that's very important.
"You look back at previous winners, a lot of those horses were beat one, two, or three times before they won a Derby," Walsh said. "But at the end of the day, they got seasoning. You need to be tough out there with all those horses around you and everything that's going on. You have to have a horse that hardened to a point."
Besides competing with a tough runner, East Avenue also may have been working on a track not fully to his liking. While the track was listed as fast, that April 8 card had been pushed back from April 5 because of steady, heavy rain in the area. In a four-race stretch that included the Blue Grass, the final main-track races that day at Keeneland were won by horses who rallied from seventh, fifth, seventh, and 10th.
"At the time at Keenland, we'd had all that rain going into it and I feel the track was drying out, so a lot of the races were kind of finishing slow," Walsh said. "It was tiring ground."
After that education, the connections of East Avenue will hope for a graduation to classic winner Saturday when he starts from post 12 under Manny Franco in the 151st Derby.
