Informed Decision

Martin Racing Stable and Dan Morgan’s Dubai Majesty, the pacesetter in the Humana Distaff (Grade I) on Kentucky Derby Day, headlines a field of seven fillies and mares ages 3-years-old and up entered for sixth running of the $100,000-added Winning Colors (Grade III), the featured event on a special Memorial Day holiday program at Churchill Downs.
    The six-furlong Winning Colors will go as the 10th race on the 11-race Memorial Day card that kicks off with a 12:45 p.m. (EDT) post time.
    Trained by Bret Calhoun, Dubai Majesty faded to third behind Informed Decision in the seven-furlong Humana Distaff on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs on the May 2 Derby Day undercard.  The race was a virtual replay of the Grade I Vinery Madison over seven furlongs on Polytrack at Keeneland, a race in which Dubai Majesty set the pace only to be run down late by Informed Decision.
Jamie Theriot, who has ridden Dubai Majesty to two of her six victories, has the mount Monday and will exit from post position five.
Dubai Majesty has three wins and three seconds from seven starts at the Winning Colors distance of six furlongs. However, the best six-furlong mark in the Winning Colors belongs to Keep the Peace, who is undefeated in three starts at the distance.
Owned by Gary and Mary West and trained by Eddie Kenneally, Keep the Peace broke her maiden at first asking in November 2007 at Churchill Downs and has since posted runner-up finishes in the 2008 renewals of the Grade III La Troienne and Grade III Dogwood under the Twin Spires. Corey Lanerie has the mount on Monday.
 The field for the Winning Colors, from the rail out, is as follows: Keep the Peace (Lanerie, 118 pounds), Temple Street (Jon Court, 118), Nadeshiko (Shaun Bridgmohan, 120), Tar Heel Mom (Jesus Castanon, 118), Dubai Majesty (Jamie Theriot, 118), Lady Chace (Miguel Mena, 118) and Tiz to Dream (Calvin Borel, 118).
    The race is named for the late Eugene Klein’s Winning Colors, a gray daughter of Caro who won the 1988 Kentucky Derby (GI) to become only the third – and most recent – female to win America’s greatest race.  
She was the first of four Derby winners trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas and returned to Churchill Downs that fall to suffer a narrow loss to unbeaten Personal Ensign in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (GI), a race that is considered by some to be the greatest and most memorable in Breeders’ Cup history.  
Winning Colors was elected Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

Jockey Julien Leparoux won the 1,000th race of his brief career on Wednesday when he guided My Little Connor ($6.20) to a 1 ¾-length victory for trainer Dave Vance in the third race at Churchill Downs.

“It feels good,” Leparoux said. “I’ll feel even better when I get 1,001. Each victory feels a little bit better. There are so many people that have helped me along the way, including [trainer Patrick] Biancone, who helped me from the start to my agent Steve Bass, trainers like Mike Maker and great owners such as Ken and Sarah Ramsey. There are too many good people to mention, but I’d like to thank all of the owners and trainers who gave me the opportunity to ride their horses.”

The 25-year-old native of Senlis, France is in the midst of his fifth year as a professional jockey. Leparoux won his first race on Aug. 18, 2005 at Saratoga Race Course and has ascended ever since.

In 2006, he won a career-high 403 races while his mounts earned a personal-best $12.4 million. The impressive year-end statistics – he led all jockeys in races won – resulted in an Eclipse Award as North America’s top apprentice rider.

Leparoux has amassed 87 stakes wins, including 53 in graded races. His most notable wins came aboard Nownownow in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Forever Together in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Leparoux is also the regular rider of top older horse Einstein-BRZ, who prevailed in last fall’s Grade II Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs and this year’s Grade I Santa Anita Handicap and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.

“It’s nice when you can ride good horses like Einstein, Forever Together and [2009 Humana Distaff champ] Informed Decision,” Leparoux said. “So far, it’s been a fun run. Hopefully, we can keep it going and have a very good year.”

The Frenchman is a four-time leading rider at Churchill Downs: Spring 2006 (87 wins), Spring ’07 (69), Fall ’07 (27) and Fall ’08 (record 63). Last fall, Leparoux rode seven winners at the Louisville racetrack on Veterans Day to match legendary Pat Day’s single-day track record.

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Augustin Stable’s Informed Decision caught pacesetting Dubai Majesty in deep stretch and then held off 32-1 shot Temple Street by three-quarters of a length to win the 23rd running of the $335,400 Humana Distaff (Grade I) for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

Ridden by Julien Leparoux and trained by Jonathan Sheppard, Informed Decision ran the seven furlongs on a “sloppy” main track in 1:23.69.

Dubai Majesty, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, shot to the lead out of the gate and raced on an unopposed lead through fractions of :22.38 and :44.86. Dubai Majesty opened a daylight light leaving the far turn and was still comfortably in front at the eighth pole in 1:09.84 as Leparoux began to weave through traffic on Informed Decision.

Informed Decision, a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos, put her head in front with about 40 yards to go as Dubai Majesty grudgingly gave way to eventually finish in a dead heat for third another half-length back with Modification, ridden by Ramon Dominguez.

Informed Decision returned $8.40, $4.80 and $3.40. Temple Street, ridden by Jon Court, provided payoffs of $24 and $10. Dubai Majesty paid $4.20 to show and Modification $5.80.

The victory, the seventh in nine career starts, was worth $199,630 to increase Informed Decision’s earnings to $722,217.

HUMANA DISTAFF QUOTES

JULIEN LEPAROUX (rider of winner Informed Decision) – “At the quarter pole I said, there is no way she (Dubai Majesty) is going to come back. They were ahead and they kind of had the jump on me. I almost had to stop her and I thought there is no way she’s going to get back in there. She actually did. At the eighth pole she really kicked in for me. She’s amazing. She’s a very nice filly. She’s obviously a multiple Grade I winner and she deserves it.”

JONATHAN SHEPPARD (trainer of winner Informed Decision) – “I was a little concerned. It didn’t look like she was running very well on the turn. I started to lose confidence in her, but once he (jockey Julien Leparoux) eased out and finally got in the clear, she started to run. I started to feel better about our chances.

“I was (concerned about the wet track) because she had never run on it. But she’s such an aggressive, forward acting filly, I thought she might handle it. If we were going to find out if she could handle it, this was a good race to find out. I wouldn’t have her if the track wasn’t safe.

“I’ve got a couple of races picked out, but we’ll take some time to think about it. I think she can run longer, but she’s so good at this distance, I’m not sure I want to change anything.”

JON COURT (rider of second-place finisher Temple Street) – “I had to come out to go around; lost some ground. But I’ve come out and gone around with her before and won. Not today. We were second best.”

KENT DESORMEAUX (rider of third-place finisher Dubai Majesty) – “I tried to give her every chance to win. She’s got a heart of gold and she tried as hard as she could. We just couldn’t get there.”

GARRETT GOMEZ (rider of sixth-place finisher and favored Game Face) – “They were flying up front and I knew it. I was just trying to keep my filly in a position she was comfortable in. We got outrun there at the end.”