Tom Pedulla is interviewing prominent owners, trainers and jockeys for America’s Best Racing as they travel the Road to the 147^th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on May 1 at Churchill Downs.

Shane Wilson, 49, who started his training operation in 1998, is featured this week. He conditions 42 horses, all of them currently based at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He acquired Rightandjust for $50,000 on behalf of 91-year-old owner Wayne T. Davis out of a winning effort on the front end in a Dec. 18 maiden claiming race at Fair Grounds.

When the bay son of Awesome Again rolled gate to wire to capture a Jan. 16 optional claiming race at Fair Grounds by three lengths for his new connections, they decided to give him a shot in the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford on Saturday, also at Fair Grounds.

The $400,000 Risen Star, a 1 1/8-mile prep for the March 20 Louisiana Derby, will award Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers on a 50-20-10-5 basis. Based on the past, the Risen Star winner will be virtually assured a place in the Churchill Downs starting gate on the first Saturday in May. Rightandjust drew farthest outside, post 13, for the Risen Star. He and jockey Mitchell Murrill are listed at 15-1 in the morning line.

PEDULLA: How is Rightandjust training for the Risen Star?

WILSON: He’s doing great. He worked Saturday and had an identical workout – 47 4/5 – same as he did before the last race. He came out of the work in good shape.

PEDULLA: How did you get your start in the business?

WILSON: Nobody in my family ever worked with horses. I wanted to get a vehicle and, when I was 15 years old, my father said, “If you’re going to get a vehicle, you’re going to pay the note on it.” I grew up maybe five miles from Louisiana Downs. I could play basketball in the driveway and listen to the call of the races. I went and got a hotwalking job there and worked for Jack Van Berg for four summers.

PEDULLA: Do you obtain most of your horses through the claiming ranks?

WILSON: I have one client who buys some yearlings in Kentucky. Everybody else claims horses. We try to stay around 40 horses. I don’t really want more than that. We try to keep upgrading the ones that we do have.

PEDULLA: How challenging is it to work primarily with claiming horses?

WILSON: The better horses are easier to train. That’s why they’re better horses. They do everything faster and easier than the claimer. It’s challenging. You’re always trying to figure out the puzzle. They want to run farther. They want to run shorter. They don’t like the inside, the outside. How much can they take training? Can they not take training? That’s really the fun part of this, trying to figure out how to make them the best that they can be. I’m watching videos over and over every day trying to find horses I think we can do something with.

PEDULLA: What led you to claim Rightandjust?

WILSON: Well, we claimed Mocito Rojo a few years back as a first-time starter for $10,000. We won two graded stakes with him last year and he’s made about $800,000. The client that claimed him, he’s always looking for a young horse with a chance to mature. We really liked the pedigree, having Awesome Again as a Breeders’ Cup winner on one end and the mare is a Tiznow mare. Looking at the pedigree, it looked like he should run farther. He should stretch out. Looking at the workouts, he had worked a minute flat from the gate, which shows he’s got some talent.

PEDULLA: What were your expectations? I can’t imagine you were thinking Risen Star when you claimed him.

WILSON: We were just hoping we could go on the same run as we did with the other horse (Mocito Rojo). We won 17 races with him, two graded stakes. I think he’s won six stakes altogether and made $850,000.

PEDULLA: Can Rightandjust be competitive in the Risen Star?

WILSON: I think you’ve got to take a chance at this time of year with a 3-year-old, especially with a pedigree that suggests he should go farther and farther. We’ll give him a chance to be that good, anyway.

PEDULLA: Is he a horse that must have the lead?

WILSON: No. Before the first time I ran him, we got him behind another horse when he worked. This past Saturday, we broke him off four lengths behind a mare that has won some races. We sat him in behind there and let him eat some dirt and then turning for home we wheeled him into the middle of the track and he ran right by her. He went the last three-eighths in 34 and change and went his last eighth in 11.21. I don’t think he has to be on the lead, but I think he will be.

Click image to purchase shirt.

PEDULLA: Your horse is an April 16 foal. Does that influence your management of him?

WILSON: Physically, he’s mature. He’s a very muscular horse. It’s mentally (a challenge), more than anything. The day we claimed him, they had a hard time saddling him in the paddock and loading him into the starting gate. We do a lot of gate schooling. He goes to the gate twice a week. He’ll school in the paddock three days in a row before he runs. Mentally, he’s still got a lot of kid in him.

PEDULLA: What is his greatest strength?

WILSON: I think his greatest strength is that he can click off those 12’s (12-second furlongs) and keep going. He can get into the race early and he can keep going.

PEDULLA: Any weaknesses you are working on?

WILSON: The biggest disadvantage he has is lack of races. A lot of (his opponents) are more experienced and they’ve run at this level. If he can keep his cool in the paddock and in the starting gate, that’s the biggest worry I have with him. He just has to learn. He’s a colt with three starts. He’s a baby still.

PEDULLA: It sounds as though there may be an exciting upside with him.

WILSON: I’m excited to see what he can do this week. He doesn’t seem that he gets tired with anything we do with him. That’s the most exciting thing to me because I have to believe there is more there whenever he has to dig down and get it.

PEDULLA: Are you allowing yourself to dream of the Derby?

WILSON: I’ve definitely thought about it. I remember Charismatic. He was a claimer before he won the Derby (in 1999). It isn’t like a horse can’t come from the claiming ranks and do it. It’s a long way off. He has to definitely prove himself that he can do it. But he’s done everything in such a way that you can’t help but think “What if?”