Jacksonville mayor, owners celebrate colt
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
It had something of a winner’s circle feel.
The only thing missing was the horse.
While Archarcharch was away training for his big day, next week’s Kentucky Derby at Louisville’s Churchill Downs, the colt was honored with a different sort of day Thursday afternoon.
Jacksonville mayor Gary Fletcher presented Archarcharch owners Bob and Val Yagos, of Jacksonville, with a proclamation making Thursday “Archarcharch Day” in honor of the three-year-old’s Arkansas Derby victory and berth in the 137th Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, next Saturday.
Fletcher even went as far as to predict a Triple Crown sweep for Archarcharch, which would mean additional victories in the Preakness and Belmont. But for now, the owners are just happy to be running at Churchill Downs a week from today.
“This is the first time for us, the first time for our trainer and the first time for our jockey,” said Bob Yagos, who bought Archarcharch at auction at Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky., when the horse was about 16 months old.
Archarcharch, who won the Arkansas Derby on April 16, is the first Yagos-owned horse to race in the main field of the $2 million Kentucky Derby.
Bob Yagos said he had a two-year-old, Spot’s Gone, in a preliminary race, but this trip to Louisville is going to be much different.
“It’s unbelievable, I’m still not believing yet,” Val Yagos said. “It’s amazing. It’s huge. And if Archarcharch doesn’t win another race we’ve won the Arkansas Derby.”
Archarcharch is already in Louisville training for the race.
Odds won’t be released until Wednesday, Bob Yagos said, but this year’s race field doesn’t appear to have a clear-cut favorite, and Archarcharch is entering with some momentum having won the Southwestern Stakes and Arkansas Derby.
Dialed In topped the list of top 10 Kentucky Derby contenders after winning the Florida Derby.
“It’s pretty wide open, even with Dialed In,” Yagos said. “We’re really the only horse in there that has won two graded stakes races going into the Derby. We won the Southwest, which is Grade 3 and then Arkansas Derby was Grade 1, so we’re basically the only horse in the race that has won two graded stakes races as a career.”
Archarcharch’s trainer is veteran Jinks Fires and the horse’s primary jockey is Fires’ son-in-law Jon Court.
When the owners had a chance to sell Archarcharch to an overseas interest in February, it would have been like breaking up a family, Val Yagos said of the horse’s close-knit team, and she was grateful for her change of heart that led she and her husband to keep Archarcharch.
“What played into it was we’ve got a trainer who’s 70 years old and never been to the Derby and been in this business all his life,” Val Yagos said. “Our jockey is 50 and never been to the Derby. They’re like our family and when we get to thinking about really taking this horse away from them it was really heart-wrenching.”
