Blue Trail gets up in Road to Kentucky Derby thriller at Kempton

Blue Trail now tops the European leaderboard, but none of the points-earners so far is nominated to the Triple Crown. The Godolphin homebred was unraced at two. Runner-up in his Jan. 13 unveiling at Newcastle, the bay dominated a Jan. 25 novice at Southwell, and took another step in better company here.

Slow to go when the gate opened, Blue Trail found himself at the rear early with Harrow. Up front, Grenoble led narrowly from Find, until an overeager Wyvern took over down the backstretch. Find traveled well in between them, and upon straightening for home, burst away from the pack.

Blue Trail then began his rally, and the gray Harrow rolled on the outside. Both had work to do to catch Find, who remained in control entering the final furlong. But the two closers cut the gap and joined Find on the line. 

The presence of Harrow might have helped Blue Trail focus, as he made one last lunge to prevail. The final time was 1:39.11 for the metric mile over the Polytrack rated “standard to slow.”

Harrow took eight points for his near-miss, and Find received four points for checking in another head back in third. Longshot Havana Goldrush was another 2 1/4 lengths away in fourth, good for two points. Next came Swatch, Wyvern, and Grenoble.

Blue Trail now sports a 3-2-1-0 mark. The Irish-bred is by Teofilo, an unbeaten champion son of Galileo. Blue Trail’s dam, the Dubawi mare Pietrafiore, is a full sister to Monterosso, who captured the 2012 Dubai World Cup (G1) during Meydan’s synthetic era. Pietrafiore and Monterosso were produced by Australian Group 1 queen Porto Roca. 

The European Road leaderboard will get another makeover in Friday’s Patton S. at Dundalk, also worth points on the 20-8-4-2 scale to the top four.