Attitude Just Might Get Enforceable to the 2020 Kentucky Derby’s Winner’s Circle

Enforceable scored early in the Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying races, picking up his first two points with a third-place showing in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland back in October 2019.  Go ahead and snicker at the apparent insignificance of those two points.

Finished?

Those two points grew quickly as Enforceable proceeded to march through the qualifying races almost unnoticed, pulling RTKD scores out of virtually every one of those races. By the end of the Road, Enforceable had acquired enough points for a guaranteed place in the starting gate of one of the world’s most revered sporting institutions. And he did it with the patience of an oyster.

Looking at his work history, no one can doubt this horse’s consistency and ambition. But will that be enough to get to the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs on September 5^th, 2020?

Indiana native Mark E. Casse spends his time running between stables and tracks in Canada and New York, with the occasional visit to Churchill downs in Kentucky. He’s taken three horses to various Triple Crown races, and horses under his tutelage have brought home money from a fistful of Breeders’ Cups competitions, as well.

Of Enforceable’s chances in the Kentucky Derby, Casse told reporters “he is going to need things to go his way. He needs there to be plenty of pace […] that makes him much more effective.”

There to ensure Enforceable takes advantage of that pace, Casse has selected British jockey Adam Beschizza, to ride in the Kentucky Derby.

The jockey choice was mildly surprising to those who thought Julien R. Leparoux–who was in the irons for about half of Enforceable’s scoring rides—would be the Derby choice, but COVID-19 had a way of wreaking havoc on schedules as well as lives, it seems.

Because of travel and quarantine restrictions, Casse found himself without a jockey for Enforceable’s KD try, so he turned to Beschizza, a man already turning rides into money for Casse at Ellis Park, agreed to the deal.

And Beschizza, who has been working Enforceable for the last couple of weeks, has some definite opinions of how Enforceable—who he considers “a closer”—will handle the race. He told HorseRacingPlanet recently that “[the Kentucky Derby] will be a cavalry charge for the first two furlongs but he [Enforceable] has the pace to take a position not too far back.”

It took Enforceable four races over a three-month period to end his maiden status, but after that first win almost exactly a year ago, he’s proceeded to prove he’s the James Brown of thoroughbred racing. As I mentioned back in March, Enforceable is one of the hardest working horses in the biz. Rather than nailing a few big scores, Enforceable has been accumulating small but significant scores.

Of the six qualifying RTKD races in which Enforceable has competed, he took home points from five of them:

The strategy proved worth the effort: Enforceable ended up with 43 RTKD points, making him Number 11 in the final tally of the Road scoreboard.

I tend to favor hard work, maybe because it’s easier to take pride in a goal achieved only after said labor. And yet, talent and skill can result in remarkable surprise wins.

And with their 28-1 odds, the best Kentucky Derby betting sites seem to be saying they have some faith in Enforceable’s hard work, as well.