LEXINGTON, Ky. – It took the length of the Keeneland stretch, but heavily favored Essential Quality was able to push past Highly Motivated in the final yards Saturday to win the Grade 2, $800,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. The hard-earned victory kept Essential Quality, a Godolphin homebred, unbeaten in five career starts and surely makes him one of the top two choices – if not the outright favorite, depending, perhaps, on how Concert Tour fares in the April 10 Arkansas Derby – for the 147th Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs. “He had to dig in today,” trainer Brad Cox said on the NBCSN broadcast shortly after Essential Quality passed under the wire a neck winner in the 1 1/8-mile Blue Grass. “It’s probably what he needed, though. I was proud of what he was able to overcome today.” Essential Quality, the 2-year-old champion of 2020, had Luis Saez aboard again when returning $3 as the heavy favorite after finishing in 1:48.50 over a fast track. He earned a career-high 97 Beyer Speed Figure, surpassing the 96 he got in his only prior start at 3, the Feb. 27 Southwest at Oaklawn Park. Highly Motivated, the 7-2 second choice in a field of nine 3-year-olds, had another 5 1/2 lengths over third-finisher Rombauer, with Hidden Stash another 4 1/4 lengths back in fourth. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2021: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more In a race noticeably lacking in early speed, Highly Motivated and Essential Quality basically turned the 97th Blue Grass into their own match race. Highly Motivated, with Javier Castellano riding for trainer Chad Brown, led through splits of 23.83 seconds, 48.21, and 1:12.08, and even passing the eighth pole, he still held a tenuous lead over Essential Quality, who was under a fierce drive by Saez just to his outside. The final 100 yards were the difference, with Essential Quality finally edging past to earn the top prize of $480,000. Easily the three most important wins for the gray Tapit colt have all come at Keeneland, with the Breeders’ Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall being his prior races here. Qualifying points toward the May 1 Derby at Churchill Downs were awarded on a 100-40-20-10 scale. The top two finishers will safely make the 20-horse cutoff, while Rombauer now has 34 points. Under bright sunshine and a sometimes biting spring chill, and with ontrack attendance at roughly half-capacity because of the ongoing pandemic, Highly Motivated and Essential Quality both broke smoothly from posts 3 and 4, respectively. Soon a game of cat-and-mouse was under way while the other seven gave chase. “No matter how fast or slow the pace, he always wants to be first at the wire,” said Saez, who was the winning rider on Mystic Guide for Godolphin the previous Saturday in the $12 million Dubai World Cup. “That other horse was fighting, and I thought we weren’t going to get him. But I always had faith in Essential Quality.” :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. “It was good for him to get a test like this today,” said the Churchill-based Cox, who will attempt to become the first Louisville-born trainer to win the Derby. “Both of them really duked it out the whole way.” After the top four, the order was Keepmeinmind, Sittin On Go, Hush of a Storm, Untreated, and Leblon. The $2 exacta (4-3) paid $7.40, the $1 trifecta (4-3-5) returned $23, and the 10-cent superfecta (4-3-5-1) was worth $7.56. Godolphin, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, has made winning the Derby a major goal for nearly a quarter-century, to no avail. The worldwide powerhouse stable has had 11 Derby starts since 1999, with a fourth by Frosted in 2015 being its best finish. Godolphin also has one other hopeful for the 2021 Derby in Proxy. Essential Quality “really has all the elements you need to have these special Saturdays,” Jimmy Bell, who heads the U.S. operations for Godolphin, said after the Blue Grass. “His versatility’s been shown from going [six furlongs] in his first race to now going a mile and an eighth while keeping up a pretty good win streak. That’s why he probably was the 2-year-old champion and in the position he’s in as a 3-year-old.” Keeneland officials surely will be rooting for Essential Quality, given the drought the Blue Grass has undergone in terms of producing Derby winners over the last 30 years. The last Derby winner to compete in the Blue Grass was Street Sense, second by a nose in the 2007 Blue Grass, while the last Blue Grass winner to also capture the Derby was Strike the Gold (1991). All-sources handle on an 11-race Saturday card was $22,723,198. The Keeneland record (non-Breeders’ Cup) of $25.8 million was set on Blue Grass Day 2019. Total handle on the Blue Grass card, run last July after the 2020 spring meet was canceled due to the pandemic, was $23.8 million. The Blue Grass was the last of six straight graded stakes to end easily the richest card of a 15-day spring meet that began Friday and runs through April 23. Keeneland is dark Sunday because of the Easter holiday.