Harlan's Holiday, with Edgar Prado up, right, pulls away from Booklet, with Jorge Chavez riding, to win the Blue Grass Stakes Saturday at Keeneland in Lexington. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        LEXINGTON, Ky. — Trainer Ken McPeek lost a Kentucky Derby contender last Monday when Repent was felled by injury, a blow to local racing fans eager to cheer for a horse with Cincinnati connections. But McPeek and Ohio horseplayers had plenty of salve Saturday for that wound.

        Ohio-bred Harlan's Holiday, a two-time winner at River Downs, completed his unlikely run to Derby favorite by dominating the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. With Edgar Prado aboard, the McPeek-trained colt raced past Booklet for a 4 1/4-length victory in the $750,000 Grade I race.

        “Everyone's walking around here with chills,” River Downs publicity director John Englehardt said by phone. “Not since Spend a Buck in '85 have we had a horse to be this excited about in the Derby.”

        That's the last time a horse to have prepped at River Downs won the Derby.

        Harlan's Holiday was born in Medina. In 127 years, only one Ohio-bred — Wintergreen, in 1909 — has won the Derby. (That horse was born in Cincinnati.) In the last 36 years, only five horses from the Buckeye State have even run in the Derby.

        McPeek took this horse on a little-traveled path, running him last year in two races restricted to Ohio-breds — the Cleveland Kindergarten Stakes at Thistledown and the Hoover Stakes at River Downs. The horse won both, then followed with a victory in the Miller Genuine Draft Cradle Stakes at River Downs.

        As a 4/5 favorite Saturday, he won in 1:51 2/5. Booklet, who has split four meetings with Harlan's Holiday this year, held off Ocean Sound by a neck to place.

EARLY DERBY ODDS

Derby oddsmaker Mike Battaglia gave his early odds Saturday: Harlan's Holiday, 5-1; Buddha, 6-1; Medaglia d'Oro, 6-1; Came Home, 8-1; Sunday Break, 10-1; Johannesburg, 10-1; Saarland, 12-1; Perfect Drift, 12-1.

        “He obviously has sheer talent, but he also has a heart the size of Ohio,” McPeek said of his horse. “The early wins in Ohio transcended him into a horse that thrives on winning.”

        Even now, the bandwagon fills slowly. Harlan's Holiday could well be the highest-priced Derby favorite in decades, despite winning six stakes races and having earnings of $1.5 million, a record for an Ohio-bred.

        In many minds, his breeding remains a stigma. But not all.

        “Harlan's Holiday is an extremely solid animal,” said John Ward, trainer of Booklet. “He should be an overwhelming (Derby) favorite.”

        There could be two Ohio-breds in the starting gate if USS Tinosa is entered. That colt, who ran his first three races at River Downs, finished fifth in the Santa Anita Derby eight days ago.

        Request For Parole, which prepped both at River Downs and Turfway Park, will also be in the Derby. Perfect Drift, who won the Lane's End Spiral Stakes at Turfway last month, is also a Derby starter.

        The Ohio-bred issue will be a big story come Derby week.

        In 1999, only 648 thoroughbreds (including Harlan's Holiday) were born in Ohio — accounting for 1.9 percent of a total North American foal crop of 33,716. Eleven states, including Kentucky (9,886), bred more.

        When Jack and Laurie Wolf spent $97,000 on Harlan's Holiday 19 months ago, they looked like the inexperienced owners they were — having never before bought a thoroughbred. On the day Harlan's Holiday made his racing debut, a comment in the Daily Racing Form scolded the Wolfs: “$97,000 for an Ohio-bred? What were you thinking?”

        Of winning the Derby, apparently.

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