Fresno: Tribal Tribute looks for upset in Bull Dog

One of the deepest fields in the history of the $75,000 Bull Dog Handicap will make Sunday’s running of the 1 1/8-mile handicap perhaps the best race to be offered at the Big Fresno Fair, which ends Monday.

Eight runners have been entered, including the winners of the Northern California fair circuit’s first two stakes routes, Positive Response and Fire With Fire. Blueskiesnrainbows, a Grade 2 winner coming off a victory over Fire With Fire in the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds at the Los Angeles County Fair, also is entered.

Hudson Landing, a multiple graded stakes winner, will be seeking his first win of the year in the Bull Dog. Batti Man ran third in the Grade 2 San Diego at Del Mar.

But there’s another horse with solid credentials in the field that is looking to spring an upset: Tribal Tribute.

Tribal Tribute ran third behind Positive Response in the County of Alameda Handicap on the dirt at Pleasanton. He then ran second to Fire With Fire in the Joseph Grace on the turf at Santa Rosa, where he had won the Robert Dupret Derby the year before. In his last race, he split Positive Response and Hudson Landing in the Rolling Green of the turf at Golden Gate Fields on Sept. 2.

Trainer Tim McCanna says tardy breaks and traffic problems may have cost Tribal Tribute better placings in some of his races.

“He always tries, but he kind of got away slow a couple times, including last time when he was last,” McCanna said. “He should have won a couple more races, but he’s had a little trouble.”

McCanna is not overly frustrated by the narrow defeats.

“The horse is doing well,” he said of the Tribal Rule gelding. “We’re just trying to keep him sharp.

“We’d like to have him a little closer.”

Though Tribal Tribute likes softer surfaces and has done his best running on turf, he does have a win and a third in his two dirt starts, and McCanna says “This seems to be a kind track.”

There’s plenty of speed in the race to set up a late charge by Tribal Tribute, including Blueskiesnrainbows, who won last year’s Grade 2 Swaps in wire-to-wire style as well as the 1 1/8-mile Hinds in the same manner. Batti Man, Skyribbon, and King Kelly also have speed.

Positive Response, five-time stakes winner, has had a consistent summer and figures tough again here. Trainer Billy Morey has given the 5-year-old Pomeroy gelding four works since his Sept. 2 Rolling Green victory.