Sierra Leone Wins Bluegrass Stakes, Horse Co-Owner Brook Smith Promises Not To Throw Sand

Before he had a name, Sierra Leone had numbers. He was Hip 202 in Saratoga’s 2022 yearling sale, a colt so conspicuous that the bidding burst from the starting gate as if it had been poked by a cattle prod.

Brook Smith had agreed to take a piece of the horse in a partnership that included racing’s Coolmore colossus, and was getting auction updates in mid-air from bloodstock agent Adrian Wallace.

“I was flying on a plane and he’s texting me: ‘This horse might go for a million or a little bit more,” the Louisville businessman recalled. “I thought, ‘What a great opportunity (to be) with the best and to own something that might be great instead of me going to the sales. He’s texting me, ‘A million, a million-five, 2 million. Are you in? Are you in? Are you in?’ And I’m like, ‘Absolutely.’ So here we are.”

Here, as it happened, was the winner’s circle at Keeneland Saturday afternoon, where Smith basked in the brilliance of Sierra Leone’s come-from-way-behind victory in the Blue Grass having witnessed the year’s highest-priced Triple Crown nominee prove himself to be a breathtaking bargain.

Smith and his partners had paid $2.3 million for this son of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, and they would recoup more than $581,000 of their investment in less than two minutes of the colt’s exertions. Yet uppermost on the minds of his owners and trainer Chad Brown, Sierra Leone’s scintillating stretch run had solidified his standing vis-à-vis the Kentucky Derby.

The Blue Grass is no longer the springboard it once was. It has not produced a Derby winner since Street Sense in 2007, and no horse has won both the Blue Grass and the Derby since Thunder Gulch did it in 1995. The track lost ground with prominent trainers after converting from dirt to a synthetic surface in 2006, so much so that its feature race was temporarily stripped of its Grade I status even after that experiment ended in 2014.

The Florida Derby has become the most reliable predictor of Derby success, a reputation that was enhanced March 30 when the Todd Pletcher-trained Fierceness obliterated 10 rivals en route to a 13 ½-length victory at Gulfstream.

But though Fierceness still figures to be the horse to beat on the first Saturday in May, Sierra Leone’s victory Saturday moved him atop the Road to the Derby qualifying points standings. Moreover, his Derby potential was made plain as he stormed from ninth place to a 1 ½-length victory after delaying the race’s start for several minutes while balking at being loaded into the starting gate.

Though his winning time (1:50.08) was nearly three seconds slower than the stakes record, Sierra Leone navigated traffic from the back of the pack with dirt flying in his face and collecting on his hide – a promising precursor for the decidedly non-dainty Derby.

"He has so much ability, and he does things so easily. We haven't even gotten close to the bottom of him yet," jockey Tyler Gaffalione said afterward, dirt still caked to the front of his nose.

"He’s still polishing off his experience and his skills,” Chad Brown said. “And I just think a mile-and-a-quarter (the Derby distance) won’t be a problem going forward. We’re looking forward to it.”

Efforts to handicap Derby 150 at this stage could require some contingency planning. Owner Amr Zedan’s attempt to circumvent Churchill Downs’ extended ban on horses trained by Bob Baffert by seeking injunctive relief will be tested Monday in Jefferson County Circuit Court. While Zedan’s suit would seem a longshot given the futility of his legal maneuvers to date, the possibility of Arkansas Derby winner Muth joining the Derby field would certainly complicate calculations.
For Brook Smith, however, calculations were fairly simple on Saturday. He would celebrate Sierra Leone’s victory – “This is going be a long night’’ – without repeating the messy scene he had made 22 years earlier, when his Red Masque won the Forerunner Stakes.

“I was so excited, I couldn’t stand it,” Smith said. “I grabbed a couple of handfuls of sand and tried to throw them in the air and proceeded to pelt the entire front row. They cussed me. So just for the record, the second time, no sand in anybody’s face. The sky is blue and the future of this horse is blue skies.”