Intrepido sharpens Derby bid with fast Santa Anita workout
Intrepido zipped four furlongs in :47.20 at Santa Anita, but the Grade I winner still needs two defections to reach the Derby gate.
Intrepido answered his Santa Anita drill with speed, covering four furlongs in :47.20 and doing it faster than trainer Jeff Mullins expected. The move kept the Grade I American Pharoah winner on target for the Kentucky Derby, but it also underscored how precarious the final days on the bubble can be for a colt sitting 22nd on the points list and still needing two defections to get into the field.
Mullins has made the calculus plain: Intrepido is headed to Churchill Downs after the April 19 work, and if the Derby door does not open, there is no alternate spring detour waiting. That kind of all-or-nothing posture reflects the politics of the qualifying stretch, where owners and trainers can do everything right on the track and still end up dependent on horses above them scratching out of the race. A sharp drill helps, but it is only one piece of a much larger scramble for the last gate spots.
Intrepido’s profile makes the waiting game even more intriguing. The colt is owned by Dutch Girl Holdings LLC and Irving Ventures LLC, with Hector Isaac Berrios booked to ride. He already owns a Grade I win at Santa Anita, taking the American Pharoah last fall, and later finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile after a slow start. His only start of 2026 before the workout came on Feb. 7, when he was second by three-quarters of a length to Plutarch in the GIII Robert B. Lewis. That sequence gives Mullins reason to believe the colt belongs in Louisville if the numbers break his way.
The Santa Anita work tab also showed how crowded the Derby-prep picture has become. Pavlovian, another expected Kentucky Derby starter, went six furlongs in 1:15.00, while Brant, the Del Mar Futurity winner, drilled five furlongs in 1:00.00 as he tried to bounce back from a disappointing San Felipe. Forced Entry, who had won the Santa Ysabel before being pulled up in the Santa Anita Oaks, returned with a five-furlong gate work in 1:00.2. For Intrepido, the message is clear: a fast breeze can sharpen the case, but the real race now is against the leaderboard, the defections, and the calendar.
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