Cox has Mystic Lake Derby in sights with improving T D Dance
Brad Cox has a lot of good 3-year-old dirt horses. Essential Quality won the Belmont Stakes, Mandaloun could eventually win the Kentucky Derby, and there are solid second- and third-tier players, too, like Fulsome, Warrant, and even Gagetown, who might be on the Iowa Derby trail. Three-year-old turf horses? Cox has those, too, and T D Dance looks like a snug fit in the $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby, featured race on a stakes-packed Canterbury Park card Wednesday evening.
The Mystic Lake Derby is one of five open stakes races, all on turf and all with six-figure purses, on Canterbury’s biggest program of the season. The 10-race card also includes a lesser stallion-auction stakes, which isn’t bad in its own right, and begins at 5:10 Central. The stakes action starts in race 3, with the Curtis Sampson Oaks, and runs through the one-mile Mystic Lake Derby, race 8. The grass course should be firm, with sunny skies and a high of 90 degrees forecast Wednesday afternoon. The temporary turf rail is down for this card, and when up has created a speed-biased grass course, and even with races run at the “true” turf position, forwardly placed runners can have an edge.
T D Dance won’t be in front early, but if he merely holds his form, he should have the lead at the wire, and this colt might still have more improvement to find this summer. By the underrated grass sire Can the Man, T D Dance won his debut last year at age 2 over the Indiana Grand turf course, lost a couple races, but comes into the Mystic Lake Derby on a two-race winning streak. In his first race this season, the Black Gold Stakes at Fair Grounds, T D Dance wasn’t entirely willing to settle off the early pace, and it showed in his even finish, but second time out he relaxed and came home strongly, winning an allowance race. In the $100,000 James W. Murphy Stakes at Pimlico, T D Dance continued building his budding professionalism, stalking a solid pace from fifth before showing off a very nice turn of foot that carried him to the lead and an easy victory.
Florent Geroux, named to ride three Cox runners in the Wednesday night stakes, only rode T D Dance in an off-turf race. From post 6 he should find his mount a suitable spot behind a lively tempo. T D Dance is listed at 5-2 on the track’s morning line, which would be fair value if offered at post time.
Ten others are entered, several with ample early speed, including stretchout sprinter Bodenheimer, who will need to leave the gate running from his far outside draw. Trainer Mike Maker, who has won two editions of the Mystic Lake Derby, has two entrants, with Chess’s Dream the shorter price but Shady McGee perhaps the more appealing play. Shady McGee, an overseas import, only won a $30,000 non-winners-of-two claimer last out but beat older horses while showing considerable improvement upon his only previous turf start for Maker. Chess’s Dream can be forgiven an off-turf defeat last out in the Penn Mile, but might have peaked earlier in the year.