OLDSMAR, Fla. – Now would be an opportune time for Classic Causeway to show that all the praise heaped upon him was legit. “He’s training as good as a horse can for a race like this,” said Brian Lynch, trainer of Classic Causeway, the chestnut colt who figures to be favored again when he makes his 3-year-old debut Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. “But that said, he’s going to have to show us the rest of the way if he’s good enough to become a serious contender” for the Kentucky Derby, Lynch said. Classic Causeway, with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding, will break from post 3 in a pivotal renewal of the 1 1/16-mile Sam Davis, a 10-4-2-1 points qualifier toward the Kentucky Derby on May 7. The son of Giant’s Causeway has been all the rage since earning a 90 Beyer Speed Figure on closing weekend of the Saratoga meet in a debut so flashy that bettors subsequently made him the favorite in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes to close out his 2-year-old season. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Classic Causeway ran respectably, though not quite good enough, when third in the Breeders’ Futurity on Oct. 9 and second in the Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 27. From there, Lynch gave the colt a brief freshening before sending him through five timed works at his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center north of Miami, the last one a seven-furlong drill in 1:26 on Feb. 2. Lynch bypassed the Holy Bull with Classic Causeway last Saturday, mostly because of the timing of the race, but also because Ortiz – who rode favored Mo Donegal to a third-place finish in that Gulfstream Park race – was available. “Timing-wise, I feel like we really have him ready now for this race,” Lynch said. “I really liked his six-furlong breeze” – on Jan. 26 – “but I still think we would’ve been one work short if we’d run in the Holy Bull. We’re lucky to have Irad, and hopefully everything goes well enough Saturday that they can stay hooked up going forward.” Ortiz and his brother Jose are among a dozen or so out-of-town jockeys in for the day. Jose Ortiz has the call on Make It Big (post 7), the likely second choice who is putting his 3-for-3 record on the line in his first start since leaving his Gulfstream base to win the Springboard Mile on Dec. 17 at Remington Park. “He has a way to win races,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who won the Holy Bull with White Abarrio and expects to be here Saturday. “He’s not a flashy horse, a very average work horse, but he’s always shown up in his races. This is going to be a much tougher task, obviously, so he needs to step up again.” In all, 13 3-year-olds are entered in the Davis, with Little Vic the lone also-eligible. Make It Big and longshot Mr Rum Runner are the only entries eligible for a $50,000 Florida-bred, winner-only bonus that’s not included in the listed purse. Beyond the two favorites, the Davis drew a deep supporting cast that includes Howling Time, Trademark, Shipsational, and Strike Hard as viable contenders given top efforts, as well as the Mark Casse trio of God of Love, Golden Glider, and Volcanic. :: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more Howling Time (post 9, Joe Talamo) will be looking to run back to a rousing score in the Street Sense on Oct. 31 at Churchill Downs after training in energetic fashion recently at Gulfstream for trainer Dale Romans. Trademark (post 6, Daniel Centeno) ended 2021 going through his first two conditions with back-to-back wins going two turns on the Kentucky circuit for BBN Racing and trainer Vicki Oliver. “We circled this race after he won the Churchill allowance,” BBN co-founder Brian Klatsky said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him to this point.” Shipsational (post 8, Javier Castellano) emerged as a standout among New York-breds last fall and obviously gets a major test with this step into open company. Strike Hard (post 11, Leonel Reyes) ran second as the odds-on favorite at Gulfstream in the Mucho Macho Man, a Jan. 1 race flattered by the runner-up effort from its winner, Simplification, in the Holy Bull. The Davis is the last of four stakes, and the 10th of 11 races overall. Post time for the Davis is 4:54 p.m. The three preceding stakes are the Minaret, Pelican, and Suncoast. The Festival Preview program starts at 12:11 p.m. Eastern with a rare all-maiden-special early pick five (races 1-5) and includes a very competitive allowance (race 9) that’s grouped with all the stakes in the various end-of-day multi-race wagers.