My Johnny Be Good using allowance as stepping-stone

The Sunday card at Tampa Bay Downs is anchored by a first-level optional-claiming race for 2-year-olds, which by all appearances includes several entrants who just as easily could have opted for Saturday’s Pasco Stakes.

King Thief has won two races in a row, both in Kentucky for Nick Zito; Decisive Force is coming off a front-running maiden win at Gulfstream Park West for Kathleen O’Connell; and My Johnny Be Good has shown promise while beginning his career at Arlington Park and Keeneland for Eoin Harty.

My Johnny Be Good will be cutting back in distance to six furlongs Sunday after finishing second in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Keeneland on Oct. 22.

“I stopped on him briefly after the Keeneland race and I didn’t want to bring him back in a stakes,” Harty said. “I was hoping to get him in an allowance, preferably going long, maybe even on turf, but there was nothing for him so we ended up here. The distance isn’t perfect, but that’s what we have.”

Harty has won with 4 of his first 15 starters at the Tampa meet. My Johnny Be Good is 1 for 3. While the horses My Johnny Be Good has been facing aren’t household names, they are a pretty solid bunch.

My Johnny Be Good finished third, beaten two lengths, in his August debut at Arlington. The winner, Bourbon Cowboy, has since run in four consecutive stakes and was second, beaten a half-length by Cinco Charlie, in last week’s Sugar Bowl Stakes at Fair Grounds.

The maiden race runner-up, Nun the Less, who beat My Johnny Be Good a neck, has since won an Arlington maiden race, a Keeneland allowance, and finished second to Conquest Tsunami in the Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs.

My Johnny Be Good won his second start while stretching out to seven furlongs at Arlington. In the Keeneland allowance, he finished second by 1 3/4 lengths to Eagle, who in his next start finished third in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, beaten three-quarters of a length by the top pair, El Kabeir and Imperia.

Following Sunday’s race, Harty plans to stretch out My Johnny Be Good in distance and place him more ambitiously.

“I’m going to look next at running him in the 3-year-old stakes at Tampa,” he said.

Those 1 1/16-mile stakes are the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis on Jan. 31 and the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 7.

Key contenders

My Johnny Be Good (Last 3 Beyers: 75-72-69)

◗ He is out of the second crop by Colonel John, whom Harty sent out to win the Travers and Santa Anita Derby in 2008. My Johnny Be Good was bred and is owned by Bill Casner, a former principal in WinStar Farm, which bred, raced, and stands Colonel John.

◗ The six-furlong distance of this race may be a little short for My Johnny Be Good and he will need a sharp effort to win.

King Thief (Last 3 Beyers: 76-71-0)

◗ Enters off wins in a $40,000 starter race at Churchill Downs and a $40,000 maiden-claiming race at Keeneland.

◗ The 76 Beyer Speed Figure he earned last out is the high number in the field, beating My Johnny Be Good’s allowance figure by 1 point.

Decisive Force (Beyers: 67-39)

◗ Improved markedly to win his maiden at Gulfstram Park West second time out.

◗ He is quick, and will have to be caught to be beaten.