Sunday Sunrise will be test for Mine That Bird

Sunday Sunrise has two wins heading into the West Virginia Derby.

By BILL MOONEY

SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR

CHESTER, W. Va. — Four years ago, Bob and Cathy Zollars stood proudly in the winner’s circle at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, next to their colt Real Dandy, who had just achieved a 1 º-length victory in the West Virginia Derby.

Saturday the Zollars will try for a second triumph in the Grade 2, $750,000 event, with Sunday Sunrise, a colt that they co-own with Mark Wagner.

If successful, the Zollars will join Mrs. Horatio Luro as the only owners with multiple victories in the state’s richest and most historic race.

Mrs. Luro, wife of the Hall of Fame trainer, achieved the feat over four decades ago. In 1963, her homebred filly Etimota recorded a 12-length victory, which remains the record margin for the race. In 1966, another of Mrs. Luro’s homebred fillies, Kerensa, won by 2 º lengths.

Things have changed a bit since then – the winner of this year’s West Virginia Derby will gain a check worth $450,000. Accordingly, the competition has become considerably more formidable than in the Kerensa/Etimota days.

Mine That Bird comes to this year’s West Virginia Derby with a Kentucky Derby triumph and over $2 million in purse earnings on his resume. Big Drama will go postward with a Grade 3 triumph and over $1 million in earnings. Awesome Rhythm is already a multiple stakes winner. Monty’s Best is graded stakes-placed.

Sunday Sunrise has made 10 career starts, from which he has managed a maiden win and an allowance victory.

Sunday Sunrise comes from an impressive family. His sire, Lemon Drop Kid, was a Grade 1 winner at age two, and at age three won both the Belmont and Travers Stakes. And Sunday Silence’s maternal grandsire, Sunday Silence, won the 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic, and was North America’s Horse of the Year.

Steve Asmussen, who received the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer in 2008, conditions Sunday Sunrise. Asmussen also trained Real Dandy and the 2007 West Virginia Derby winner, Zanjero, and will be shooting for his third win in the race.

Real Dandy was sent off at odds of 7-1 in his West Virginia Derby. He was in an 11-horse field and was last through the opening half-mile, before making a huge move on the outside to gain the victory.