Harty well stocked for Cotillion Festival

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs spotlights the stars of the future Saturday with Cotillion Festival Day, a 10-race program exclusively for 2-year-olds. The $100,000 Inaugural and $100,000 Sandpiper stakes are the co-features, with the Inaugural the eighth race on the card and the Sandpiper the ninth. Each race is six furlongs on the main track.

Trainer Eoin Harty has horses entered in six of the 10 races. While Harty said he’s fortunate to have horses from such high-profile organizations as Godolphin and Darley Stud, he is quick to point out that training regally bred youngsters is a double-edged sword.

“I’ve learned down through the years not to get carried away looking at the pedigrees,” Harty said. “Early on, I too was quick to get excited over young horses with fancy bloodlines and learned from painful experience that the best course was to let the horse show me if they could run or not, regardless of their family tree. So, Saturday is going to be just another step in these young horses’ educations. We’ll watch them race and see what they tell us about just how we should proceed with their careers.”

Harty sends out Innovative Idea in the Sandpiper. Innovative Idea won at first asking from post 1 in a 6 1/2-furlong sprint over the Polytrack at Arlington, then tried graded stakes company at two turns in the Grade 1 Alcibiades over Keeneland’s new dirt track.

The Bernardini filly finished 11th in the race that produced the first two finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but Harty said there were several factors present for that race that made him simply throw out the effort.

“The track was wet and very speed-favoring that day, and I’m not sure [Innovative Idea] took to it,” Harty said. “I’m inclined to just throw that race out and move on. I’m not sure six furlongs is her best distance, but it’s the first step this winter on a program where we hope she’ll progress as we stretch her out. She’s got tactical speed and has been training well, so hopefully she’ll give a good account of herself.”

Veteran Ronnie Allen Jr. rides the bulk of Harty’s horses, and the trainer was asked if an older, more experienced rider is helpful in developing young runners.

“No doubt about it,” he said. “Sometimes you get these young riders who aren’t patient, and they go out there and undo all the hard work you’ve put into the horse leading up to the race. Ronnie works these horses in the morning and knows them. He can also suggest things we can do to make them better, and that’s a big plus.”

Of the five other runners Harty has entered Saturday, the horseman said Docket, who makes his second start in the sixth race going six furlongs, could well improve.

“He was very wide into the stretch at Churchill but was still making up ground late,” Harty said. “He certainly has license to improve Saturday.”

Innovative Idea faces several interesting challengers in the Sandpiper, including Coco’s Wildcat. Coco’s Wildcat stopped badly when last in the $100,000 Juvenile Filly Sprint at Gulfstream Park West last out, but prior to that, she had finished third in the Selima at Laurel after leading late in that turf sprint and was second in the Sorority at Monmouth on the main track.

Cheers for Sidney, who finished fourth in her second start at Indiana Grand in a sprint run in 1:08.78, and recent winners Fond of Sarah and R Sassy Lass along with Odachi, who returns to the main track for her third start, also bear consideration.

In the Inaugural, Supreme Justice, who turns back in distance while going for his fourth win from five career starts, tops a well-matched field that also includes Lord Tyrion, who comes out of a stakes at Remington Park, and recent Keeneland winner Duke of Luke.