Maturity key to Dixieland Bull's success

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Ask any trainer what the key is to early season success with a 2-year-old and, invariably, the subject of maturity comes up. Veteran horseman Robert Schultz thinks the "M" word - both physically and mentally - is the reason for his promising young filly Dixieland Bull's 2-for-2 career mark.

"She is just a big, mature filly," Schultz said after Dixieland Bull broke sharply and defeated a turf allowance field June 11 that included several colts and geldings. "She just seems to have them over a barrel right now in that respect. Not only is she advanced from a physical standpoint, she has her act together mentally as well."

Schultz credits Keith Asmussen, father of trainer Steve Asmussen, for Dixieland Bull's early development.

"She was broke over at the Asmussen place in Texas," Schultz said. "They do a real good job of getting them ready to run over there. I only got her three weeks before her maiden win, so I did not know all that much about her. I had to hurry a little bit to get three published works in her, which you have to have to run a first-time starter. But since then we have slowed down a little and set up a training program with her."

Dixieland Bull is by Holy Bull out of the Placid Fund mare Placid Star. It was the bottom side of her pedigree that prompted Schultz to try the grass.

"Her mama won a couple of races on the grass, so we thought we'd try it with her," he said. "She obviously handled it pretty well. We are looking at the Princess Stakes on the grass over the Fourth of July weekend here, then we will probably give her a little time off before bringing her back in the fall."

* Friday is a mini turf festival of sorts with four of the nine races scheduled for grass, including the afternoon's co-featured first and sixth races. Both races carry a nonwinners-of-three lifetime condition attached to a $25,000 claiming price. The first race is for open company while the sixth is for fillies and mares. Each will be contested at five furlongs.

More Than Tactics, a runaway winner by over six lengths for trainer Morris Nicks in his last start with a Beyer Speed Figure of 86, rates as the one to beat in the first race. Taisteal Culle will likely go favored in the sixth.