Drum Roll Please will point to Withers, Cox says

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Last year, trainer Brad Cox used the New York series of 3-year-old races to get Hit Show to the Triple Crown, where he finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and dead-heated for fourth in the Belmont Stakes.

Along the way, at Aqueduct, Hit Show won the Grade 3 Withers and was beaten a nose by longshot Lord Miles in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial.

This year, it appears Cox will again try to use the New York path to the classics with Drum Roll Please, who won Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths and who will be pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers here on Feb. 3.

“He came out of the race in good order and if all is well four weeks from yesterday that’s the race we’ll look at,” Cox said Sunday.

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The competition figures to get tougher along the way, but Cox was happy enough with the effort put in Saturday by Drum Roll Please, who was last early, but never more than two lengths off a modest pace.

“He was able to sit off horses and finish up,” Cox said when asked what he liked most of the Jerome. “I don’t know what to take of the time, but this time of year you can get tracks like that.”

Drum Roll Please covered the mile in 1:41.91 and earned an 80 Beyer Speed Figure. Drum Roll Please, a son of Hard Spun owned by Al Gold, now has 13 Derby qualifying points.

Drum Roll Please entered the Jerome off a third-place finish behind Dornoch and Sierra Leone in the Grade 2 Remsen on Dec. 2. That was his first try around two turns and 1 1/8 miles. The Withers, which offers 42 qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby - 20 to the winner - will be his second.

“He can handle the mile and an eighth, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” Cox said. “I think his figures can go forward at a mile and an eighth based off his physical; there’s plenty of him. He’s a horse with plenty of scope. Maybe the longer the better.”

One of the horses Drum Roll Please will meet in the Withers is Jerome runner-up El Grande O. In his first start in two months, El Grande O set the pace Saturday and gave way inside the final furlong while finishing 7 1/2 lengths in front of third-place finisher Khanate.

“We want to try him two turns once,” said Linda Rice, who trains El Grande O for Barry Schwartz. “Speed does well around two turns.”

Last year, Rice campaigned the New York-bred Arctic Arrogance to second-place finishes in the Jerome and Withers before finishing fourth in the Wood Memorial. Arctic Arrogance has not run since the Wood, and recently suffered another setback in his bid to make it back to the races, Rice said.

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