Awesome Banner eyes Swale Stakes next

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday was an awesome day in the local 3-year-old division, with Awesome Banner cruising to a convincing and popular victory in the Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes and Awesome Speed doing likewise in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man. However, it appears that neither will come back in the first major 3-year-old race of the meeting, the Grade 2 Holy Bull, later this month.

Trainer Stanley Gold said Monday that the seven-furlong Swale Stakes, to be run on the Holy Bull undercard Jan. 30, likely will be next for Awesome Banner, who is now undefeated and virtually unchallenged in two career starts. Trainer Alan Goldberg also said Monday that he likely will skip the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull with Awesome Speed to await the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes four weeks later.

“There’s no sense stretching him out prematurely,” Gold said of Awesome Banner, who earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure in the six-furlong Hutcheson. “At the moment, we have a sprinter who is sprinting well, so we’ll go from six furlongs to seven for the Swale. There’s no sense taking the edge off him now. The timing is perfect, and if we’re still happy with him after the Swale, then the next logical progression would be the Fountain of Youth. I don’t think a mile and one-sixteenth will be a problem for him, but it’s not a mile and one-quarter for those who are already thinking about the Kentucky Derby. I’m not even going to worry or be concerned about that stuff for now. All I know is that I’m real happy with the way he ran and came out of the race on Saturday. He beat a couple of real legitimate sprinters, and it was a great starting point for the year.”

Goldberg was not in attendance for the Mucho Macho Man, but he was at the Palm Meadows training center to inspect Awesome Speed on Monday and was very pleased with what he saw. He’s also realistic when it comes to putting his once-beaten 3-year-old on the Kentucky Derby trail.

“I don’t have any delusions because he didn’t run that fast, and he didn’t beat anybody the other day,” said Goldberg. “But a lot of times you see horses get banged around like that and have the wind knocked out of them, and they just don’t perform after that happens. And he did. I haven’t spoken to the boss yet, but I’m thinking about probably skipping the Holy Bull. It comes up a little quick, and [I’m considering] running in the Fountain of Youth, and if he runs good, bring him back in the Florida Derby.”

Awesome Speed was ridden to victory by Joel Rosario, one of his five wins on Saturday’s card. Rosario also captured the Grade 3 Dania Beach for trainer Chad Brown aboard Life Imitates Art.

One top 3-year-old definitely being pointing toward the Holy Bull is Greenpointcrusader, the winner of the Grade 1 Champagne but a disappointing seventh as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Greenpointcrusader breezed five furlongs in 1:02.80 at Palm Meadows on Monday with exercise rider John Paris aboard, his third local work since being shipped to south Florida last month by trainer Dominic Schettino.

“He worked well. I liked the way he finished and especially the way he galloped out, six furlongs in 1:15.20,” said Schettino.

Schettino said his horse had some excuses in the Breeders’ Cup.

“He got shuffled back at the start, and with those tight turns on that track, it’s hard to win from where he was,” said Schettino. “He also came back with one eye closed after the race.”

Schettino said he has secured John Velazquez to ride Greenpointcrusader in the Holy Bull.

Casse plots next starts

Another Derby hopeful with an eye on the Holy Bull is Conquest Big E, one of several top 3-year-old prospects whom trainer Mark Casse has bedded down at Palm Meadows this winter. Conquest Big E bounced back from his eighth-place finish in the BC Juvenile to win an optional-claiming race over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs in his 2-year-old finale. The son of Tapit posted a bullet 48-second half-mile work at the training center last Thursday.

“His first work here the other day was tremendous,” Casse said. “And I think the track here will suit him better than Airoforce, who’ll be back breezing soon and will likely go to the Sam Davis and Tampa Bay Derby.”

Airoforce won 3 of 4 starts at 2, his lone setback coming by a neck in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Airoforce added blinkers and switched to the main track to close out the year with an impressive victory in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28.

Casse also said that Grade 2 winner Conquest Daddyo, who finished a troubled fourth in the BC Juvenile Turf, likely will make his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Palm Beach on Feb. 27, while BC Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Catch a Glimpse might return in the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant on Jan. 30. Casse also said that his other Breeders’ Cup winner, Tepin, who beat males convincingly in the Mile, is likely to launch her 2016 campaign at Tampa Bay Downs in the Hillsborough Stakes.

◗ A couple of jockeys changed agents over the holidays, with Bob Klesaris, who had been representing the injured Hall of Fame rider Edgar Prado, now taking over the engagements of Juan Leyva, and Donnie Richardson, the former senior vice president of racing at Churchill Downs, taking the book of Matthew Rispoli.