More horses will emerge as Kentucky Derby prospects, but I really liked Vicar’s in Trouble in the Lecomte, Indianapolis in the San Pedro, and Cairo Prince in the Holy Bull.
As added incentive beyond a $250,000 purse, Tampa Bay Downs has initiated a bonus series that ties the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis to the March 8 Tampa Bay Derby. If a horse wins both Tampa races and goes on to win the Kentucky Derby, that horse will earn a $1 million bonus for its owner.
New Year’s Day, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was assigned top weight of 126 pounds in the Experimental Free Handicap rankings for 2-year-olds of 2013, which were released Wednesday by The Jockey Club.
On Sunday, trainer Tom Amoss sent out Rise Up for a half-mile work in 49.80 seconds, the colt’s first breeze since he won the $1 million Delta Jackpot on Nov. 23 by six lengths.
The connections of Ria Antonia, the filly who was placed first through disqualification in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall, have changed plans and now intend to race her in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes rather than the Risen Star Stakes when she makes her 3-year-old debut Feb. 22.
Matador has been training very solidly at Palm Meadows, with a string of five-furlong drills, and last Saturday, he posted his final work for this Saturday’s Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes, a bullet five-furlong work in 1:00.65 that pleased trainer Mark Casse.
Very few horses came out of this race with realistic credentials to stay on the Triple Crown chase. The winner, Cairo Prince, certainly advanced his standing, scoring by 5 3/4 lengths in 1:42.16 to earn a 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
Art Sherman is the trainer of California Chrome, the winner of Saturday’s $250,500 California Cup Derby for statebreds at Santa Anita. He is quickly becoming the colt’s biggest fan.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he was doing “great” Sunday morning, and why shouldn’t he have been, in light of Cairo Prince’s outstanding performance Saturday in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes? Cairo Prince parlayed a perfect trip under jockey Luis Saez into a convincing 5 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull, earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest of his four-race career.
California Chrome proved himself best of the statebreds on Saturday at Santa Anita with an overpowering victory in the $250,000 California Cup Derby, a performance that his trainer, Art Sherman, thought was in him, and which will earn California Chrome a shot to prove himself worth of getting to another Derby, the one in Kentucky on May 3.
