Dance With Fate eyes Del Mar

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Dance With Fate, who finished a creditable sixth in the Kentucky Derby, was to head back to California on Monday, possibly for a break before his next start.

Dance With Fate emerged from a roughly run Derby in good order, with groom Francisco Tabuyo only pointing to a small nick on one of the colt’s hind legs as evidence of the trip. Dance With Fate was shuffled around on the first turn, and then bumped later in the race.

Trainer Peter Eurton headed back to his Santa Anita base very early Sunday to saddle three horses on that day’s card. Eurton said he may wait until the Del Mar meet, which opens July 17, to start Dance With Fate again. Del Mar utilizes a synthetic Polytrack surface, and Dance With Fate scored his biggest victory in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes on Keeneland’s Polytrack, the effort that punched his ticket to the Derby. The colt broke his maiden at Del Mar last August, then was a closing second by a half-length to Tamarando in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, with California Chrome sixth.

Although he was Grade 1-placed on dirt as a juvenile, Dance With Fate was seeking his first victory on the surface in the Derby.