J P's Gusto worked seven furlongs in 1:25.40 on Monday at Santa Anita, preparing for his expected 3-year-old debut in the $250,000 Robert Lewis Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 12.
Wilkinson, a Dec. 10 maiden winner here at Fair Grounds, on Saturday captured the Grade 3, $96,000 Lecomte Stakes, wearing down slow-pacesetting Pants on Fire while rallying up the rail under Garrett Gomez.
Soldat, a Grade 3 winner on turf, stamped himself a candidate for the Triple Crown trail by romping over a sloppy track in a nine-furlong allowance race Friday at Gulfstream Park. He will be pointed to the Feb. 26 Fountain of Youth.
Trainer Nick Zito scratched Dialed In, his top 3-year-old prospect, out of Friday’s featured ninth race less than three hours before post time due to the sloppy racetrack. Zito said he would likely run Dialed In, a son of Mineshaft, back in the Grade 3 Holy Bull a week from Sunday.
Comma to the Top maintains his top ranking; there is no change among the top five Derby candidates. There is shuffling in the bottom five, however.
Comma to the Top, the winner of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 18 and two other stakes at the Hollywood Park fall meeting, worked six furlongs in 1:13.60 on Wednesday at Hollywood Park.
No one is calling the 3-year-old colt Justin Phillip bipolar, schizophrenic, or anything like that. “Quirky” was the word his trainer, Steve Asmussen, chose to describe him. “Ninety percent of the time he’s fine,” Asmussen said Thursday morning at Fair Grounds. “The other 10 percent, you just don’t know.” Just five horses are entered in the Grade 3, $100,000 Lecomte at Fair Grounds on Saturday, and Justin Phillip's raw talent will probably send him off favored.
Churchill Downs has set the dates for the three three-day pools in the 2011 Kentucky Derby Future Wager while announcing that exacta wagering will be offered for the first time in the single Kentucky Oaks Future Wager pool.
The 2011 Preakness is still more than four months away, but the MI Developments Preakness 5.5 kicks off here next Sunday with the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes.
Brethren, Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver’s little brother, is still a few breezes away from his 3-year-old debut, which is likely to come in the Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
