Channel Lady finally has an opportunity to return to what I feel is her most effective running style, coming from off the pace, in Saturday's Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park.
I am not saying Verrazano is Big Brown or Curlin. I am saying that those two horses proved that the old ways of looking at the Kentucky Derby are just that – old.
Dan Silver had a model in mind. He just needed to sift through all the possibilities and find a signature race at the right time in the right category on the correct surface for Penn National. Silver, who became the director of racing for Penn National last fall, knew this much when he began his search: “We wanted to follow the Charles Town model, where they created the $1 million Charles Town Classic, which is now a million and a half.”
Lost in the shadow of leading Kentucky Derby contender Verrazano’s popular triumph in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby was the breakout performance from runner-up Java’s War, an early-May foal who could prove a late-bloomer on the Kentucky Derby trail.
Michael Hammersly's weekly "Trip Notes" report, which includes graded stakes races for the previous weekend -- in this case, the weekend of March 9-10. Included are the Tampa Bay Derby and San Felipe Stakes, both Kentucky Derby prep races.
Verrazano may be No. 1 on many Kentucky Derby contenders lists, but history shows that Saturday’s Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby is a race that puts the “yips” in trainer Pletcher’s putter. Out West, the San Felipe features an early season showdown between Flashback and Goldencents.
BreezeFigs Quick-Pix for Saturday, March 9th, 2013 by Bob Pandolfo and Jay Kilgore.
Sister Ginger is an interesting alternative to Kentucky Oaks future favorite Flashy Gray in the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park.
There is something Flashback lacks going into Saturday’s much-anticipated matchup against Goldencents in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes: a blemish on his résumé. And with horseplayers seeing nothing but “blue sky,” he seems assured of getting hammered at the betting windows and starting as an odds-on favorite.
