Expat Australian Ian Wilkes has already trained a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and will have his first runner in the most famous American race of all when McCraken lines up in the Kentucky Derby.
McCraken is the 5-1 joint second favourite for the Run To The Roses at Churchill Downs on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
Although McCraken is Wilkes’ first Derby starter, it is far from his first experience with the race. He was the exercise rider for 1990 winner Unbridled and assistant to trainer Carl Nafzger with 2007 winner Street Sense.
Although McCraken missed the Tampa Bay Derby on March 11, Wilkes said it was not a problem.
“I felt confident we would be OK. It was very minor,” Wilkes told Churchilldowns.com.
“Things happen for a reason, so we will find out in the long run.”
Nafzger was a spectator on Thursday morning when McCraken galloped over 1800 metres.
“I’m so proud of him,” Nafzger said of Wilkes. “It is like watching your son score the winning touchdown in the big game for the home team.
“Ian was a big influence with Unbridled and Street Sense. We always bounced stuff off each other. We always worked together.”
Wilkes, whose brother Wayne is a trainer in country NSW, worked for trainers Paul Sutherland, Vic Thompson and Colin Hayes in the 1980s before moving to Kentucky to become Nafzger’s work rider in 1989.
He then returned home for three years before he was lured back to Louisville in Kentucky to become Nafzger’s assistant.
He took over most of Nafzger’s horses when the trainer went into semi-retirement in 2006 and in 2012 trained Fort Larned to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
* Expat Ian Wilkes aims to become the first Australian to train the winner of the upcoming Kentucky Derby with three-year-old colt McCracken
* Wilkes grew up on a dairy farm in northern NSW, left school at the age of 16, and during the 1980s worked under Australian trainers Paul Sutherland, Vic Thompson and Colin Hayes
* In 1989, Wilkes moved to Kentucky to work for Carl Nafzger. Wilkes became the track work rider for Unbridled, who won the Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1990
* Wilkes returned home for three years but in 1993 went back to Kentucky and became Nafzger’s top assistant
* In 2006, Wilkes took over the bulk of Nafzger’s stable when the veteran went into semi-retirement
* Wilkes’ first solo Grade One winner was Capt Candyman Can in the 2009 King’s Bishop Stakes in Saratoga Springs, New York
* In total, Wilkes has trained more than 500 winners, including Fort Larned in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic
* McCraken is the 5-1 joint second favourite for the Derby
SYDNEY, May 5 AAP