Week in Review: Paladin Tops Sophomore Totem Pole, Who Will Ride Remains Open Question

[Wandering Eyes]

From an immediate-return standpoint, jockey Flavien Prat's trip to King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Saturday paid off handsomely. Imagination (Into Mischief) took home the $1.2 million winner's share of the purse in the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint, and the $3.5 million runner-up money earned by 'TDN Rising Star presented by Hagyard' Nysos (Nyquist) was a lucrative consolation prize for crossing the wire second behind dual-continent champ Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) in the G1 Saudi Cup.

But there are tradeoffs to any business decision, and the future cost that the 33-year-old Prat might have to incur could be that by going overseas to ride in the world's richest horse race in February, he vacated the mount on the GI Kentucky Derby favorite for May.

Prat had piloted the undefeated Paladin (Gun Runner) in each of the $1.9 million FTSAUG colt's first two victories in New York for trainer Chad Brown. Tyler Gaffalione picked up the mount in the Feb. 14 GII Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, and the result was a convincingly professional stalk-and-pounce victory by half a length (93 Beyer Speed Figure) that established Paladin atop the Derby-prospect totem pole nearing the 10-week mark to the first leg of the Triple Crown.

Paladin's persistent Risen Star score was punctuated by a length-of-stretch reeling-in of a staying-on lone speedster, a prolonged unwinding that Gaffalione launched from mid-pack on the backstretch on an afternoon when horses either on the lead or dueling for it won five of seven dirt races in New Orleans.

Coupled with a previous win in the Dec. 6 GII Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, Paladin now owns two victories over nine furlongs, and his final prep for the Derby is likely to be the 1 1/8-miles Apr. 4 GI Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

The last eight times Brown has had at least one starter in the Blue Grass, the results have included three wins, three close seconds, and a third.

Reached Sunday afternoon, Brown told TDN via text message that it's still too early to say whether Gaffalione will retain the mount on Paladin in the Blue Grass or beyond.

“Paladin came back well so far,” Brown wrote. “Tyler rode a flawless race [Saturday], we are very appreciative of his effort. No decision on jockeys moving forward, many preps still to be run.”

But if the 31-year-old, third-generation rider does get asked to stick with Paladin, the chance could counterbalance an opportunity Gaffalione lost two years ago when Brown took him off 'Rising Star' Sierra Leone after a runner-up effort in the roughly run 2024 Derby and replaced him with Prat.

Two years ago, Gaffalione had picked up the mount on Sierra Leone for the Risen Star Stakes after Manny Franco broke the colt's maiden and Jose Ortiz rode him to a lugging-in second-place finish in the Remsen.

Gaffalione won aboard Sierra Leone in the 2024 Risen Star, then again in that April's Blue Grass Stakes.

Sierra Leone (left) and Forever Young battling in the Derby | Coady Media

But Sierra Leone continued to have problems staying straight in his stretch runs, and in that year's Derby, Gaffalione careened into the lane eight wide with serious late-race torque. Sierra Leone was leaning all over eventual third-place finisher Forever Young the entire length of the stretch, culminating in a frenzied three-way photo for the win that ended up with Mystik Dan on top.

Gaffalione was fined $2,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission “for touching a rival with his left hand.” It appeared that Gaffalione was trying to keep Sierra Leone from Forever Young and used his hand to push off.

Brown told TDN prior to Sierra Leone's next start in the 2024 GI Belmont Stakes that Gaffalione should have had his whip in his left hand, not the right, earlier in the Derby stretch drive.

“He didn't have his stick in his left hand until the eighth pole, and it cost him,” Brown said at the time. “This is not a punishment. The understanding is that's the way this horse likes to travel and you have to be prepared for this horse.”

Brown not only switched to Prat, but also put a different steering bit in Sierra Leone's mouth.

Although neither move resulted in immediate victories (Sierra Leone ran third in the Belmont, second in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes, and third in the GI Travers Stakes), the colt did win the season-culminating GI Breeders' Cup Classic and the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old male of 2024.

Prat retained the mounts on Sierra Leone through the colt's 1-for-5 season at age 4, and he was voted champion jockey for both 2024 and 2025.

Gaffalione continued to ride other horses for Brown during that same time frame. But he missed any opportunity to ride in the 2025 Kentucky Derby after breaking an ankle in a post parade accident at Gulfstream last March. He took extra time to heal and came back in July, winning both the summer meet riding title at Ellis Park and the early fall title at Churchill Downs.

Paladin is owned in partnership by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Peter Brant, Brook Smith and the colt's breeder, Summer Wind Equine. Several of those same partners also teamed up to campaign Sierra Leone.

In Saturday's Risen Star, Paladin broke alertly and was responsive to Gaffalione's early efforts to get him to settle between horses into the first turn.

Paladin was fourth, about four lengths off lone leader Chip Honcho (Connect) in the early part of the backstretch run.

A half-mile out, Gaffalione repositioned Paladin outside and sent him up into second.

By the three-furlong pole Paladin loomed menacingly, and his seizure of the lead from the 7-1 pacemaker looked to be a matter of “when” not “if.”

But Chip Honcho, who had won the Dec. 20 Gun Runner Stakes and was a narrowly beaten fourth in the Jan. 17 GIII Lecomte Stakes over the same Fair Grounds strip, wasn't caving to the pressure from the 7-10 fave.

Gaffalione-who a half-hour earlier had just ridden 'Rising Star' Bella Ballerina (Street Sense) to a half-length victory in the GII Rachel Alexandra Stakes after leading throughout, getting passed in deep stretch, then clawing back the lead along the rail in the final strides-knew full well that inside speed was holding at Fair Grounds and that Paladin would have to come up with something extra for the win.

Gaffalione roused Paladin with both left- and right-handed stick work, and although his hustling deep-stretch efforts did not yield one big, blast-off move, the colt churned out a measured, grind-down finish that put him over the top just before the wire and extended into a purposeful gallop-out.

Three participants in the history of the Risen Star Stakes have gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, but two of them-Country House in 2019 and Mandaloun in 2021-achieved their Derby victories by getting elevated via disqualification. (War Emblem ran sixth in the 2002 Risen Star and won the Derby outright).

In both 2022 and 2023, the winners of the Risen Star went on to start as favorites in the Kentucky Derby. Epicenter was second in the 2022 Derby at 4-1 odds, and Angel of Empire was the same price when third in the 2023 Derby.

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