Quality Road transferred to Pletcher
By David Grening
ELMONT, N.Y. - Florida Derby winner Quality Road was transferred Monday morning to trainer Todd Pletcher as owner Edward Evans removed the six horses he had with trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

Pletcher also received the multiple stakes-placed 3-year-old filly Casanova Move - most recently third in the Grade 1 Acorn - from Evans. Subprime, a maiden-winning filly, went to Tony Dutrow, while Kiaran McLaughlin received the fillies Minishaft, Giant Mover, and Shafter. Storm Play, a 4-year-old stakes-winning colt, had been transferred from Jerkens to Pletcher several weeks ago.

"Mr. Evans felt he needed to make a change for a lot of reasons, so that's what we did," Chris Baker, the farm manager for Evans, said by phone Monday morning from Evans's Spring Hill Farm near Casanova, Va.

Baker did not elaborate on those reasons, but added that "Mr. Evans was appreciative of the job Jimmy did for us." Jerkens said he trained for Evans for three years, during which, according to Daily Racing Form statistics, he won 24 races from 130 starters and purse money totaling $2.2 million.

Jerkens declined to comment on the split.

In addition to winning the Florida Derby, Quality Road won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream in February. Quality Road was considered among the favorites for the Kentucky Derby, but was forced to miss that race as well as the Triple Crown series due to a quarter crack in his right front hoof.

Baker said Quality Road's inability to participate in the Triple Crown races was not a factor in the decision to take the horse away from Jerkens.

"That was circumstantial, unrelated to this decision," Baker said.

At 11:45 a.m. Monday, Quality Road took up residence in Pletcher's Belmont Park barn, coincidentally in the stall next to Dunkirk, whom Quality Road defeated in the Florida Derby on March 28 at Gulfstream Park. Dunkirk, who recently ran second in the Belmont Stakes, will only be Quality Road's neighbor through Saturday, at which time he is expected to ship to Ashford Stud in Kentucky to continue rehabilitation from surgery he underwent on June 9 to repair a condylar fracture in a left hind cannon bone.

"Everyone knows how much I always thought of Dunkirk; obviously he beat Dunkirk in the Florida Derby," Pletcher said of Quality Road. "Obviously, he's an extremely talented horse. We'll just have to see where he is in terms of his training and kind of get with Mr. Evans and his people and devise a strategy. Obviously, Jimmy's done a great job with him and we can only hope to do as well as he has. Coming off a Grade 1 win, you can't do any better than that."

Quality Road recently returned to the work tab on June 8, working three furlongs in 38.83 seconds. His connections hope to have him ready to run in either the Jim Dandy at Saratoga on Aug. 1 or the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 2, and subsequently the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 29.

The rich get richer.