Gold Rush Dancer will get class test in Del Mar Derby

With his place among California-bred 3-year-olds secured by three consecutive stakes wins, Gold Rush Dancer will be tried in his first graded stakes later this summer.

Trainer Vann Belvoir said on Thursday that he plans to start Gold Rush Dancer in the $250,000 Del Mar Derby, a Grade 2 at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sept. 4. Gold Rush Dancer won the $151,380 Real Good Deal Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on dirt Wednesday. In May, Gold Rush Dancer won consecutive turf stakes in the Silky Sullivan Stakes at Golden Gate Fields and the Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita.

If there is a time to try a graded stakes, Belvoir thinks the Del Mar Derby is it.

“He runs really well fresh,” he said.

Belvoir considered scratching Gold Rush Dancer from the Real Good Deal in favor of the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap on Aug. 6 but opted to stay in the statebred race.

In the Real Good Deal, Gold Rush Dancer closed from sixth in a field of 10 to win by a half-length as a 14-1 outsider. The Real Good Deal was the first stakes win at Del Mar for Belvoir and owner and breeder John Parker of Washington state.

Gold Rush Dancer, by the Seeking the Gold stallion Private Gold, has won 5 of 12 starts and earned $379,923.