Matthews monitoring Strike Hard following Tampa Derby scratch
Plans are on hold for Strike Hard, who was scratched Saturday from the Tampa Bay Derby after spiking a temperature last Friday, a day after being shipped over from Gulfstream. The gray Flashback colt is back home.
“He’s not back training quite yet,” trainer Matthew Williams said mid-week. “We’ve got to watch him and see.”
Strike Hard was second as an odds-on favorite in the Mucho Macho Man, a Jan. 1 race that proved a springboard for the winner, Simplification, who proceeded to run second in the Holy Bull and win the Fountain of Youth. Strike Hard was fourth in the Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis at Tampa in his lone subsequent start.
◗ Steal Sunshine, second at 25-1 behind Skippylongstocking in a March 2 allowance at Gulfstream, worked a bullet half-mile in 47 seconds here Tuesday in preparing for the April 2 Florida Derby for owner-breeder Carrie Brogden and trainer Bobby Dibona.
Meanwhile, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Wednesday he is still deciding on whether to run Skippylongstocking in the Florida Derby – for which he already has one of the favorites in Holy Bull winner White Abarrio – or the April 9 Wood Memorial, which he is considering for A. P.’s Secret.