Showing Up at the Kentucky Derby?

Showing Up, making just his third lifetime start and first in a stakes, could well have earned himself in the Kentucky Derby 132 starting gate with a late-finishing, 1 1/4 length victory in the $325,000 Lexington Stakes (GII) at Keeneland Saturday.

Trained by Barclay Tagg, who won the 2003 Derby with Funny Cide, Showing Up was also making his first start around two turns in the Lexington. Undefeated in two starts prior to Saturday's race, Showing Up was coming off a track-record setting victory in a one mile allowance race at Gulfstream Park. In the Lexington, he got squeezed back a bit at the start, but settled nicely in fifth place, some five lengths off the pace set by the speedy duo of Like Now and Fast Parade. Entering the far turn, jockey Cornelio Velasquez began to move Showing Up towards the leaders. Fast Parade was fading quickly, but Like Now was holding on gamely. Longshot Bear Character, who was always forwardly placed, had wrestled the lead away from Like Now as the pair neared the top of the stretch. Velasquez swung his mount three wide and eventually collared the top pair in mid-stretch. Like Now and Bear Character were not able to keep pace late, and Showing Up eased away for the final margin. Like Now held for second, a neck in front of Bear Character. Greeley's Legacy, always in mid-pack, was another three lengths back in fourth. More than Regal, Chin High, Fast Parade, Hemingway's Key, Special Interest and Gone Prospecting rounded out the order of finish.