Ocelli has banked $609,800 by way of seven begins, buoyed by present finishes within the $750,000 Wooden Memorial Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack and the $5 million Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs.
Regardless of that sizable bankroll, he stays a maiden.
4 jockeys have climbed on his again, however not one has guided him to a win, admittedly in opposition to fierce stakes competitors of late.
In order that leaves coach Joe Sharp with distinctive bragging rights with Ocelli—regardless that he would not even practice the Join colt.
Earlier than Ocelli’s formal unveiling final fall for coach Whit Beckman, Sharp, a former jockey, piloted Ocelli to an unofficial victory in March 2025 in a quarter-mile apply race within the first race on the Aiken Trials. He rode the then-unnamed 2-year-old for Travis Durr, who prepped Ocelli at his coaching heart 1 1/2 hours to the east of Aiken, S.C.
“I all the time give the jockeys a tough time—I am the one one who has received on him,” joked Sharp, who received 24 races as a rider earlier than leaving that occupation behind in 2011 to grow to be a profitable coach.
Sharp, who topped the Honest Grounds Race Course & Slots standings this winter, even factors his good-natured critique inward, saying he subsequently handed on the chance to purchase the colt and add him to his steady.
All of that is in good enjoyable, which is exactly what attendees say the Aiken Trials are. A protracted-standing South Carolina custom, the Aiken Trials characteristic racing (not of the official selection), tailgating, and pony races.
Photograph: Barry BornsteinFans cheer as Ocelli edges Honey Dutch within the first of the 2025 Aiken Trials
Sharp and his spouse, retired jockey Rosie Napravnik, prefer to cheer on their boys, Tucker and Carson, as they journey in these pony races, and if Sharp can safe a journey himself, it’s the boys’ flip to cheer on their dad.
The Aiken Trials are strictly academic and don’t seem on a horse’s official report, however their historical past runs deep. Now in its ninth decade, the Trials had been initially designed for distinguished personal stables wintering in Aiken to provide horses expertise and basis earlier than transport north.
Generally over time, the occasion has attracted a group of future stars, together with Dogwood Steady’s 1990 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Summer time Squall, who was overwhelmed in his Aiken Trial look in 1989 earlier than later successful in his official debut at Keeneland the subsequent month for coach Neil Howard.
Six Thoroughbreds who hung out on the Aiken Coaching Monitor have received the Kentucky Derby: Shut Out (1942), Fortunate Debonair (1965), Cannonade (1974), Nice Colony (1981), Swale (1984), and Sea Hero (1993).
Now that the Aiken space has a smaller horse inhabitants, the trials embody 2-year-olds educated elsewhere within the state, akin to these from Travis Durr Coaching Heart.
On Could 16 at Laurel Park, Ocelli will purpose to win the Preakness Stakes and rebound from a Kentucky Derby loss, simply as Aiken Trials graduate Summer time Squall did.
Ocelli, overwhelmed within the Derby by solely a size after rallying to the lead with a sixteenth of a mile remaining, is likely one of the favorites for the $2 million second leg of the Triple Crown. That is in distinction to the Run for the Roses the place he began at 70-1 odds and practically pulled off an upset to match Wealthy Strike , the 80-1 shock winner in 2022.
For these from Aiken watching the 2026 Derby, “It was thrilling,” stated Suzy Haslup, vice chairman of Aiken Coaching Monitor.
She and others would have had just a few {dollars} on him, too, if South Carolina permitted advance-deposit wagering.
Nor was he the one horse from the Aiken Trials to run on Derby Day. Honey Dutch , one other Travis Durr Coaching Heart graduate who chased Ocelli after they met at Aiken, confirmed on the Kentucky Derby undercard when third within the American Turf Stakes (G1T).
Beckman trains each 3-year-olds—Honey Dutch for Legion Racing and Awestrike Racing, and Ocelli for Durr’s spouse, Ashley, together with Anthony Tate and Entrance Web page Equestrian.
Ocelli got here out simply on high of their matchup 14 months in the past in South Carolina.
“So he is aware of learn how to put his head throughout the road first,” Beckman stated with amusing throughout a Could 8 Nationwide Thoroughbred Racing Affiliation teleconference.
This quarter-mile “winner” is now a classic-placed 3-year-old—exceptional, contemplating the contrasting distances.
“He is proven each step of the way in which that he is able to way more than meets the attention,” his coach stated.