Oaklawn Park: Sheltowee's Boy auditions for Rebel
Sheltowee’s Boy could put himself in a position for a start in next month’s Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel based on his performance Thursday in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park.
Mary RampelliniFeb 04, 2014
Sheltowee’s Boy could put himself in a position for a start in next month’s Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel based on his performance Thursday in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park.
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Among the workers Monday at Fair Grounds were Steve Asmussen’s two leading 3-year-old hopes: Tapiture worked six furlongs in 1:12.80, and Gold Hawk went five-eighths in a snappy 1:00.60.
Trainer Todd Pletcher has 41 3-year-olds nominated to the Triple Crown, an all-time record that once again will make his stable the most-watched on the road to the 140th Kentucky Derby on May 3 at Churchill Downs.
Tampa Bay Downs’s traditional stage-setters for its top stakes of the meeting were run Saturday, and the results were as different as night and day.
Cairo Prince, an impressive winner of the Holy Bull Stakes last month at Gulfstream Park, is the top separately listed wagering interest behind the heavily favored mutuel field in Pool 2 of the 2014 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Thursday at noon Eastern for a three-day run.
Trainer Jose Garoffalo was forced to skip the Holy Bull Stakes last week with his star 3-year-old Wildcat Red. So he went to Plan B, Saturday’s $200,000 Hutcheson Stakes, and was rewarded when Wildcat Red drew off to a convincing 4 3/4-length victory.
From the opening bell of Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct, Samraat was tested, and he survived a 1 1/16-mile-long duel with Uncle Sigh to win the Withers by one length and remain undefeated from four career starts.
A change in scenery, a change in surface, and a change in equipment all added up to a change in finish from Harry’s Holiday Saturday – with the colt proving a runaway winner of the $56,766 96Rock Stakes at Turfway Park.
Vinceremos, ridden by Edgar Prado, found the wire just in time as his Pletcher stablemate, Harpoon, came charging on the outside in a frantic four-horse finish in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Candy Boy just did avoid catastrophe on Saturday morning, dodging a horse who had broken down in front of him just as he was completing his final work for next Saturday's Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita.