No wonder Frank Hopf was smiling. In the aftermath of Saturday’s historic $500,000 Virginia Derby, won by a horse that hardly seemed good enough to be entered in a prep for the Kentucky Derby … much less directed by a no-name jockey who, until now, had served it exclusively as a morning-workout rider … the man charged with bringing Colonial Downs into the mainstream of Thoroughbred racing had to be feeling pretty good.

“It couldn’t have turned out better,” said Hopf, the track’s director of race operations, clearly relieved.

For one thing, the New Kent County track’s first three-day boutique meet, which got off to a shaky start, ended on the highest of high notes with a sellout crowd of 8,000-plus for Derby day.

Then it was Bob Baffert to the rescue of a field that would have been conspicuous by the lack of Kentucky Derby hopefuls when the renowned trainer entered Getaway Car, which already had 36 points towards qualifying for the Run for the Roses and went off the heavy betting favorite at 4/5.

The last-minute decision by trainer Brad Cox  to yank John Hancock, the early second-choice at 3/1 from the original field of 10, could have been a killer had Baffert sent Getaway Car home, too. He previously had to withdraw Gaming, considered a viable Kentucky Derby threat, because of illness.

As it turned out, longshot American Promise, that went off at 7/1 after being the morning line fifth choice (12/1), proved surprisingly dominant in the chase for the winner’s share of $300,000. The big colt by former Triple Crown winner Justified finished 7 3/4-lengths ahead of another longshot, Render Judgement. Crowd favorite Omaha Omaha, the only Virginia-born horse in the field, was third.

Getaway Car came in fourth and, when asked about it yesterday, Baffert didn’t sound like he expected much more from the small colt. In fact, despite earning 10 more points towards potential nomination for the May 3 Derby, it now seems doubtful he will run even if eligible.

“We’ll get him home and reassess. I’ll have a lot to think about,” Baffert said.

So, will he or won’t he continue the pursuit? “I don’t know … I’m not sure,” Baffert said.

Remember, he has won six Kentucky Derbies and had a record-setting seventh in 2021 when Medina Spirit was disqualified for having a banned substance. Baffert was suspended from all tracks owned by Churchill Downs for three years, which ended mid-summer of 2024. 

Nobody knows what it takes to win The Big One in Louisville more than Baffert … who has six three year olds (not counting Getaway Car) all considered likely to make the field.

He watched Saturday’s race from the West Coast, where he attended a wedding, leaving the heavy preparation to long-time assistant Jimmy Barnes. Surely, they already knew Getaway Car probably wouldn’t be at his best on the unique one-turn surface here.

“We didn’t get the trip we wanted,” Baffert said long-distance. “I think he likes two turns instead of one long turn. He got hooked [bumped] early and just got tired.”

Getaway Car, American Promise, trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lucas, and Render Judgement left the rest of the field behind early before first Getaway Car fell back and Sheldon Russell, aboard Render Judgement, decided his horse was faster than American Promise at the half-mile poll “but I couldn’t run him down.”

American Promise set a track record for 1 1/8-miles in 1:46.51. Like Baffert, Lucas, 89, wasn’t in attendance, leaving his assistant Sebastian Nichols in charge. Little more than a month ago Getaway Car edged Lucas-trained Caldera to win the Sunland Derby, another Kentucky Derby prep, and lessons learned from that disappointment paid off this time around.

Workout rider/jockey Nik Juarez, making his first start aboard American Promise, got away quickly and beat Getaway Car at its own game. “It was a perfect ride by the jockey,” Nichols told a reporter.

So, there in the winner’s circle was Juarez, acting like he hadn’t done anything like this before, which he hadn’t. It wasn’t difficult to notice how excited he was, (cliché alert) talking a mile a minute, so quickly in fact that even a tape recorder couldn’t do its usually reliable job.

Anyway, the native of Maryland is 31 years old and lived in Oceanport, N.J., when he was the leading rider at Monmouth Park in 2017. In all, he’s been a jockey since 2014, winning 1,027 of 7,090 starts and $37,988,166 – mostly on undercards at tracks like Laurel and Oaklawn.

Juarez was the seventh jockey to ride American Promise which, in eight previous starts, had one victory, with one second and a third. He was purchased for $770,000 at Keeneland and, to date, has earned almost $455,000.

“I spoke to Wayne Lucas a couple of weeks ago. He told me the colt was coming around … and really liked him, so we knew he would be tough,” Baffert said, adding, “I remembered [the horse] from the sale. It took him a while to come around … but he was pretty impressive yesterday.’

Meanwhile, everyone, including Baffert, insists all is well between him at Churchill Downs, Inc. “Water under the bridge,” a CDI spokesman said.