The Into Mischief colt RENEGADE is all the rage for the 152nd Kentucky Derby (G1) on the first Saturday in May after a jaw-dropping four-length romp in the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park on March 28. On a day of big races around the world, including the $1 million Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream, Renegade was the talk of the racing universe with one racing media person even saying on ‘X’, “Is there any point in even running the Derby this year, who’s going to beat Renegade?”
That might be reaching a bit, but certainly Robert and Lawana Low and Mike Repole’s colt looks like one of the top players for the 1 1/4 mile Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs. Earlier on Saturday afternoon, Commandment won at Gulfstream while off-track, the big news was that Risen Star Stakes (G2) winner Paladin had suffered a fracture in his ankle and is headed for surgery.
The Arkansas Derby had a light field with only Renegade, trained by Todd Pletcher, Southwest Stakes (G3) winner Silent Tactic and Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) winner Litmus Test as the only added-money winners in the eight-horse field. But Renegade’s strong win in at Tampa Bay Downs in the Sam F. Davis in his season debut was all the fans needed to make him the event money choice.
The early pace of 23.25 and 47.80, followed by 1:12.52 was not very strong and Redland Rebels had a clear lead into the final turn while Silent Tactic, trained by Mark Casse, was about five lengths back in the two path and Renegade behind him. Heading to the stretch, Briklin, a longshot, and Silent Tactic moved to the lead while jockey Irad Ortiz sat coolly and allowed Renegade to move between rivals. Silent Tactic put a head in front in the early stretch, but Renegade jetted past after a tap of the whip. The time was 1:49.70.
The win gave Renegade a much-needed 100 points for the Kentucky Derby, which put him near the top of the list of point leaders. Silent Tactic, owned by John Oxley, ran admirably well again and earned 50 points, although the son of Tactitus already had enough points to secure a Derby spot.
Todd Pletcher said, “We were super excited about the way he ran. It looked like he got shuffled around a little bit in the first turn and down the backside. It looked like he was traveling well. It just kind of looked like Irad (Oritz Jr.) was biding his time to start advancing. I was really impressed by the way he finished coming home the last eighth of a mile the way he did.”
Three horses have won the Arkansas Derby and then the Kentucky Derby since 1980: Canadian-bred Sunny’s Halo in 1983, Smarty Jones in 2004, and American Pharoah in 2015.
The Lows are from Missouri and have owned horses since 1994. They raced stakes stars such as Capote Belle and Pegasus World Cup Turf winner Colonel Liam. They won an Arkansas Derby with Magnum Moon in 2018, but that colt was unplaced in Kentucky and later was injured and passed away due to laminitis. The couple bred Renegade and Repole bought the colt for $975,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September sale. However, the Lows approached Repole after the sale and bought half of the colt back.
Oaklawn announced a record crowd of some 73,000 although wagering was down 5 percent from 2025.
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