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Florida Derby (gr. I) third-place finisher and Kentucky Derby contender Fellowship continues to impressive during morning training at Churchill Downs, with his latest breeze drawing attention as he easily bested the talented sprinter Awesome Banner during a five-furlong workout.
On a busy morning that saw two other Derby contenders turn in timed workouts, Fellowship completed his workout in a solid 1:00.40, starting off slowly with fractions of :13, :25, :36.80, and :48.40 before leaving Awesome Banner behind in the final furlong and galloping out well through six furlongs in 1:13.80.
“He did everything that we wanted him to do,” Norman Casse, son and assistant to trainer Mark Casse, was quoted as saying in a Churchill Downs press release. “This was just what we liked to see two weeks before a big race. Looks like he just skips over the racetrack. He’s full of himself and has a lot of good energy. It’s just everything you look for in a two-week work in our program.”
At the moment, Fellowships is ranked 21st on the list of Kentucky Derby qualifiers and will need one defection to draw into the race, but Casse thinks Fellowship will be ready to run if he gets the chance.
“As of right now I’m really excited with the idea that we could get to run,” Casse said. “I think he would run really well. He’s obviously not in yet, but I’m actually kind of overwhelmed with how well he’s trained.”
