Destin has seen his form improve sharply in his two starts at Tampa. After winning the Sam F. Davis, the prep for the Tampa Bay Derby, he downed his stubborn Pletcher-trained stablemate Outwork to capture the Tampa Bay Derby while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure.
With a marquee matchup between Mohaymen and Nyquist likely, trainer Todd Pletcher is considering taking arguably his top Kentucky Derby prospect, Zulu, elsewhere rather than meeting the two division leaders in the $1 million Florida Derby here April 2.
Last weekend’s two major Kentucky Derby preps were dominated by descendants of two well-established stallions who were already enjoying very good years in 2016. Destin, winner of the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby is by three-time-leading North American sire Giant’s Causeway, while Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes winner Danzing Candy, by Twirling Candy, is a paternal grandson of Candy Ride, who has his own Derby prospect this year in Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes winner Gun Runner.
Mohaymen closed as the favorite in Pool 3 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager and Songbird was the heaviest favorite in the 14-year history of the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager when pools closed Sunday following the customary three-day run.
Kentucky Derby-winning trainers Bob Baffert, Doug O’Neill, and Todd Pletcher will be frequent rivals on next Sunday’s richest day of racing at Sunland Park in New Mexico. The three conditioners have horses in both the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes and the $200,000 Plum Pretty.
Danzing Candy and Mor Spirit, who finished one-two in the Grade 2 San Felipe on Saturday, are likely to meet again April 9 in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby, the final local prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 7.
This was the strongest Kentucky Derby prep to date, in terms of depth, as five of the six runners were current members of the Derby Watch top 20. Danzing Candy, in his stakes debut, won for the third straight time, all at Santa Anita, all with Smith, and he got a career-best Beyer Speed Figure.
Songbird was the 3-5 favorite for the Kentucky Oaks and Mohaymen the 3-1 favorite for the Kentucky Derby with one more day of wagering still to go in the future wagers being offered this weekend by Churchill Downs.
Surgical Strike earned the first stakes victory of his career in the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial on Saturday night at Turfway Park – but more importantly, he earned experience that will serve him well as he steps into the Kentucky Derby hunt.
Every journey begins with a first step, and for Danzing Candy, that first step in his first three starts was not as sharp as it would need to be the closer he got to the Kentucky Derby. But in his stakes debut on Saturday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes, Danzing Candy put his prior gate troubles in the rear-view mirror, and his rivals in the race ended up there, too.
