14-horse Tropical Park Derby a brain teaser on six-stakes card

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $75,000 Tropical Park Derby may not be the richest of the six turf stakes on the 11-race program here Saturday but it is definitely the most intriguing. The 1 1/16-mile race has drawn a full and very strong field of 14 3-year-olds trying to squeeze in one final stakes opportunity against their own kind while also hoping to punch their ticket, perhaps, into the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational in January.

A Thread of Blue is by far the richest and most noteworthy member of the field, having won the inaugural $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational in August for owner Leonard Green and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. But A Thread of Blue wasn’t done any favors at Sunday’s post-position draw when being assigned the outside post in the bulky lineup.

The competition is considerable and includes Grade 3 winners Faraway Kitten and English Bee,, along with Temple, Kadar, and Halladay, the first three finishers, respectively, in the Gio Ponti Stakes four weeks earlier at Aqueduct.

Among the local contingent, the versatile Art G Is Back will demand some respect, returning to the grass off a second-place effort over the main track in the Sunshine Millions Classic Preview last month at Gulfstream Park West. Art G Is Back, who is winless but stakes-placed three times on turf, tuned up for the Tropical Park Derby by working a solid five-eighths from the half-mile pole in 59.96 seconds here Sunday for trainer Ron Spatz, the final three-eighths of the drill into a strong headwind.

“We had him nominated to the Mr. Prospector [last] weekend but felt it was better to run him a mile and one-sixteenth on turf against 3-year-olds than against Grade 1 horses going seven-eighths on the dirt,” Spatz said. “This is the last 3-year-old race of the year and if he runs well here, we would then consider going to the Sunshine Millions Turf next month.”

Saturday’s stakes action also includes the $100,000 Janus and its filly counterpart, the $100,000 Abundantia, at five furlongs; the $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks going 1 1/16 miles; the $75,000 Via Borghese for older fillies and mares going 1 3/16 miles; and the $100,000 Allen Jerkens carded at a grueling two miles.

Track-record holder Pay Any Price and the Group 1-placed Extravagant Kid are among the main contenders in the Janus, while Girls Know Best returns to defend her title in the Abundantia against a group that includes the red-hot Grade 3 winner Jean Elizabeth.

The undefeated, Clasico de Caribe Invitational winner Letruska makes her turf debut in the Tropical Park Oaks. The Via Borghese has no real standout among the 10 starters and may be the most wide-open race of the day. None of the 10 horses entered in the Allen Jerkens have ever been two miles, although American Tattoo is coming off a third-place finish in the 1 3/4-mile, Grade 2 Marathon on the opening-day Breeders’ Cup undercard. He will likely be favored over the locally based, three-turn grass specialist Salute the Colonel.