When the purse is $3 million, horses will come from all over to take a shot. One of the Pegasus’s least likely winners is Brotha Keny, a 4-year-old gelding who needed seven starts to break his maiden. He comes into the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 off a victory in the ungraded, 1 1/16-mile Zia Park Derby in the hinterlands of Hobbs, New Mexico.
He closed well from last under Joe Ramos to beat eight rivals far less accomplished than the horses he’ll face Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Brotha Keny also won the listed Bourbon Flight Stakes on Sept. 20 at Churchill Downs. The Pegasus World Cup will be the Grade 1 debut for a horse who’s run third twice at the Grade 3 level.
“He’s really come around since midsummer,” his former trainer, William Morey, said after the Zia Park win. “We always liked him and were patient with him, and he finally came around for us.”
On Dec. 3, Morplay Racing and Michael and Jules Iavarone bought Brotha Keny for $550,000 from Lance and Steve Kinross at the Inglis Digital USA December Sale. Jose D’Angelo took over his training.
The Zia Park was Brotha Keny’s second victory in his last three starts, following third-place finishes in the West Virginia Derby and Indiana Derby. He’s been in sharp recent form, but the class rise is huge. But on the plus side, distance is not an issue for him. With a trouble-free trip, maybe he can pass tired horses late to pick up a piece of the purse.
Simple: Toss.
Notes: Brotha Keny breezed 5 furlongs in 1:02.05 on Jan. 17 at the Palm Meadows Training Center … He’s won at distances from a mile to 1 3/16 miles and done more than his share of traveling, competing at six different tracks in four states.
Ed McNamara is an award-winning racing writer who has covered the sport since 1981 for The Bergen (N.J.) Record, Newsday, ESPN, Thorocap, and USRacing. He is the author of Cajun Racing: From the Bush Tracks to the Triple Crown and Racing Around the World, and a contributor to The Most Glorious Crown and The Racetracks of America. He has also written for racing publications in France and Italy.
