Derby Trial gives Borel fifth win

Jay Privman, Daily Racing Form

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fans at Churchill Downs on opening day Saturday gave popular jockey Calvin Borel a high five. Borel won five races, and polished off the day in grand style by guiding Hurricane Ike to a prototypical, rail-skimming ride when capturing the Grade 3, $233,400 Derby Trial.

Hurricane Ike won by 2 3/4 lengths over Aikenite, with Pleasant Prince another 6 3/4 lengths back in third. Eightyfiveinafifty, the 3-2 favorite, faded to finish fourth in the one-mile race after leading to the top of the stretch.

Both Pleasant Prince and Eightyfiveinafifty were seeking enough graded stakes earnings to get into top 20 and participate in the Kentucky Derby next Saturday. The $23,028 earned by Pleasant Prince gives him a total of $189,278, which leaves him well short of what it appears it will take to get into the Derby.

Eightyfiveinafifty will return to sprinting, trainer Gary Contessa said after the race.

"We're going to regroup and make him the best sprinter in the country," Contessa said.

Hurricane Ike had finished second to Eightyfiveinafifty in the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct three weeks earlier. His victory in the Bay Shore, his second in eight lifetime starts, could earn him a start in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, trainer John Sadler said.

Hurricane Ike completed one mile on a sloppy track in 1:36.35 and paid $13.80 as the fourth choice in the eight-horse field. He is owned by Ike and Dawn Thrash, who have Line of David, the Arkansas Derby winner, in the Kentucky Derby.

Aikenite, the Derby Trial runner-up, has enough graded stakes money to make the Derby field, but Cot Campbell, who manages the Dogwood Stables partnership that owns Aikenite, said before the race that Aikenite would not come back in the Derby, a position that was reiterated by trainer Todd Pletcher after the race.