Creative Cause and Bodemeister, the one-two finishers in the San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, are expected to meet again in the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7, but that race will not include Fed Biz, who on Monday was pulled from the Kentucky Derby trail by his trainer, Bob Baffert.
Cigar Street, a recent maiden winner at Fair Grounds could be the next breakthrough 3-year-old. His pedigree is classy and familiar and he earned a big Beyer Speed Figure for his victory at 1 1/16 miles on March 10.
Fed Biz, who missed the San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita with a hind-end issue, is still not traveling properly and will be pulled off the trail to the May 5 Kentucky Derby.
Currency Swap and Gemologist, two of the nation’s elite 2-year-olds from last year, are entered to make their first starts of the year on Friday at Gulfstream Park in a one-mile $80,000 allowance race, which attracted a field of five.
Howe Great took another step towards following in the footsteps of stablemate and 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom by registering a vone-length victory over fellow Derby prospect Dullahan in Sunday’s $150,000 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Creative Cause and Bodemeister, the one-two finishers in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, are expected to meet again in the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
Brother Francis, stakes-placed twice last fall, will be pointed to the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7, after finishing third in a one-mile maiden race on turf in his 3-year-old debut on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Creative Cause, back at the same distance and over the same track at which he won the Norfolk Stakes last fall, cemented his position as the West Coast’s leading contender for the May 5 Kentucky Derby with a determined victory over Bodemeister in the Grade 2, $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Prospective rebounded from a second-place finish in last month’s Sam F. Davis Stakes and put himself on the Kentucky Derby trail with a three-quarter-length victory over Golden Ticket in Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
At Gulfstream, Currency Swap made a strong appearance working six furlongs from the gate in 1:11.55 with jockey Rajiv Maragh aboard. Currency Swap, idle since winning the Grade 1 Hopeful six months earlier, completed his opening quarter in a leisurely 25 seconds after leaving the gate with a pair of workmates.
