Arizona-breds get chance to shine

PHOENIX – Turf Paradise celebrates the home-grown product Saturday with a card of nine races for Arizona-breds, including five stakes led by the $50,000 Gene Fleming Breeders’ Derby. Carded as the eighth race, the 1 1/16-mile Gene Fleming Breeders’ Derby drew eight 3-year-olds.

Trainer Kevin Eikleberry has the two morning-line favorites in Yo Y Me (even-money) and Ida Goodest (9-2). Ida Goodest won the 7 1/2-furlong Arizona Stallion Stakes on grass at 20-1 here April 1. Yo Y Me has won his last four, three of them stakes, but he’s never routed and hasn’t run in almost four months.

Ida Goodest, owned by J. Lloyd Yother and Eikleberry, had run four times without winning prior to the Arizona Stallion, including a ninth against maidens on turf here March 14. He stalked the pace in the Arizona Stallion, took over in the stretch, and drew off to win by 2 1/2 lengths over Saturday rival Chelokee’s Legacy.

Yo Y Me, owned by William Matthews and Eikleberry, had three seconds and a third in his first four starts. After a two-month layoff, he whipped maidens sprinting on dirt here Oct. 17 and then won the ATBA Sales Stakes here Nov. 5 and the Arizona Breeders’ Futurity here Dec. 10.

Yo Y Me then dueled for the lead in the Lost in the Fog Juvenile here and won the six-furlong race by a neck. He hasn’t run since that Dec. 31 race but has run well off the bench. As a son of Grade 1 route winner Dixie Chatter and a Bertrando mare, he is bred to get the distance of the Gene Fleming Breeders’ Derby.

In the other stakes action Saturday:

◗ The $15,000 Joanne Dye (race 2), for 3-year-old fillies at 7 1/2 furlongs on turf, drew a field of six. The only winners in the race are Top Hat Wildcat, third behind Ida Goodest in the Arizona Stallion, his first try on turf, and Dancer’s Notes, a winner on turf here in the fall and second against optional claimers on turf here March 29.

◗ The $25,000 Dwight D. Patterson Handicap (race 5) drew a field of six older horses to go 1 1/16 miles on turf. It’s led by Silvanus, a winner of his last three starts, two on this course, and Red Zeus, the winner of this race last year. Red Zeus is shortening up after a fourth in the 1 3/8-mile Wildcat Handicap here April 1.

◗ The $25,000 Lyman and Bradley Rollins Handicap (race 6) at six furlongs on the main track matches eight older horses, including some of the top sprinters on the grounds. J P Rocker, the six-length winner of this race last year, hasn’t run since finishing fifth to Saturday rival Rockin Home in the Cactus Wren here Dec. 10. Rockin Home comes off a second in a tough allowance race here Jan. 7.

Rocked Twice was claimed for $25,000 out of his last start, an eighth-place finish going a mile here Feb. 25. Now trained by Kathy Schenk, he returns to his best game – sprinting. He worked a bullet half-mile in 46.20 seconds here April 8.

◗ The $25,000 Ann Owens Distaff Handicap (race 7), at six furlongs on the main track for fillies and mares, lured eight. Among the contenders are Mobiledixie and Sierrita.

Mobiledixie, second in this race last year, comes off two sixth-place finishes on turf, and the return to dirt may snap her back to life. Sierrita, fifth after a troubled start in an allowance sprint here March 27, won an Arizona-bred stakes here in December.