Florida Derby winner Tappan Street nearing comeback race
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tappan Street, sidelined since upsetting Sovereignty in the Grade 1 Florida Derby here March 29, got a step closer to his much anticipated return by breezing five furlongs in 1:03.40 on Monday at Payson Park. The work was his fifth at the training center since his arrival in South Florida in late October.
Trainer Brad Cox reported Wednesday that Tappan Street, who missed the Kentucky Derby due to a condylar fracture suffered in a workout a week before the race, is doing well and could launch his comeback on Dec. 20 at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday.
“He’s doing very well and we’re very excited about where he is at right now,” Cox said by phone from Payson Park where he has 75 horses stabled with more to come, including Kentucky Jockey Club winner Further Ado. “He is a very talented, classy horse and physically he looks amazing.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a fresh horse to start the New Year and at the moment we’d like to get a run in the Harlan’s Holiday with the Pegasus a possibility after that if all continues to go well.”
The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational will be run Jan. 24.
Cox said he is extremely proud of what Tappan Street accomplished after launching his career down here last winter. While trying not to dwell on what might have been had Tappan Street, the last horse to finish in front of leading Horse of the Year candidate Sovereignty, not been forced to the sidelines.
“This horse did a tremendous amount in a short period of time last winter, starting his career right after Christmas and winning the Florida Derby,” Cox said. “And I’d rather think about what we accomplished and what lies ahead in the future rather than on what we might have missed had he stayed healthy through the year.”
Cox said he also is considering the Pegasus for the undefeated Disco Time, a sensational winner of the one-mile Dwyer at Aqueduct in his last start.
“He’s down here training as well and he will be nominated for the Pegasus,” Cox noted. “We were considering the Malibu for him and had a flight lined up to California from down here on the 14th. But with horse flights stopped indefinitely for the time being it eliminated that idea. I’m not going to van him cross-country. I’m not doing that again.”
Florida-breds line up
Friday’s main event is a modest entry-level allowance and optional claimer for Florida-breds carded at 1 1/16 miles on turf. It has lured a field of seven, topped by the recently stakes-placed Win With Faith and New York invader Landman Friday.
Win With Faith returns to the allowance ranks off a late-running third-place finish in the Showing Up Stakes against open company on Nov. 1. Win With Faith, who has now been stakes-placed on three occasions at 3, earned a career-best 84 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort while beaten just a length by Souper Forces, who also came from well back in the pack to upset the Showing Up at odds of 18-1 in his local bow.
Win With Faith, one of five 3-year-olds in the lineup, has seemingly bounced out of that effort in good order and posted a very impressive-looking half-mile bullet work over the main track for trainer Ron Spatz on Nov. 27.
Landman Friday will take on statebred opposition for the first time since winning his maiden in late-running fashion here going a mile April 5. Trained by Danny Gargan, Landman Friday just missed winning his New York finale when his closing bid fell a neck short of victory against open, mid-level conditioned claiming competition over the Aqueduct turf on Oct. 22.
Our Souper Hero has shown improvement since finishing fourth behind Landman Friday when the pair first met in the aforementioned maiden race last spring. He could hold a pace advantage in this rematch coming off a wire-to-wire, two-length maiden victory while projecting to be the controlling speed once again.
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