Trainer Rick Violette left the door slightly open that his Economic Derby might run in the Florida Derby after the son of Malibu Moon sizzled five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Palm Meadows on Wednesday.
Neil Howard is proof that you can’t keep a good man down. In recent years, Howard, 62, was not achieving the success to which he was accustomed. But he started gathering momentum the last half of 2010, and his productive 2011 meeting at Fair Grounds has been highlighted by the development of a pair of 3-year-olds, Machen and Wilkinson, both of whom are in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on Saturday.
Dialed In, in his final major prep for the Florida Derby, worked a half-mile in 47.55 seconds on Thursday morning at Palm Beach Downs.
The pace scenario is in his favor, he already has a win over the track, and he looked great the second time he went past the stands when galloping Thursday morning here at Fair Grounds. For Mucho Macho Man, the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on Saturday looks like a slam dunk.
Springtime, and the dreaming is easy. Horsemen have flocked to Turfway Park with the notion that if you can just sneak one in here Saturday by winning the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, anything could happen six weeks later in the Kentucky Derby.
Positive Response was assigned post 2 as the lukewarm morning-line favorite in a full field of 12 3-year-olds entered Wednesday night in the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, to be run Saturday at Turfway Park.
Trainer Jinks Fires already has one 3-year-old in a good position to make the Kentucky Derby in Archarcharch. After the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on Sunday, he hopes to have another. Fires will send out Supreme Ruler in the 1 1/8-mile race, which drew a field of 11 when entries were taken on Wednesday.
Garrett Gomez will ride Silver Medallion in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9, trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday.
By finishing fourth as a 13-1 shot in his only start in a graded race, Thirtyfirststreet hasn’t justified any of his owners catching Kentucky Derby fever.
