This Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes delivered a number of surprises. The biggest of which was Pyro’s poor performance.

Steve Asmussen is not worried. Before this even Pyro had been among the most constant horses around, finishing in the top 3 in 6 career starts. This poor performance was blamed on colt’s aversion to Keenland’s synthetic surface.

“I’m pretty confident it was simply the surface,” Asmussen said Sunday. “The horse came out of it in good shape. Watching the race, he wasn’t going anywhere at any point. He wasn’t himself from the first step.”

Fortunately, if the surface was actually the reason for Pyro’s performance he will have no problem with the track surface at the Kentucky Derby on May 3. The Derby is run over a conventional dirt track, and Pyro has already won at Churchill Downs, breaking his maiden there in July.

As for the winner of the weekend, it was Monba, who is trained by Todd Pletcher. Pletcher is also the trainer of Cowboy Cal. The win this weekend was worth $465,000 bringing Monba’s career earnings to $577,534.

At the top of the stretch the two stablemates, Cowboy Cal and Monba, hooked up in a battle to the wire. Monba, ridden by Edgar Prado, got the better of Cowboy Cal and won by a neck.