Notah more suited for allowance than Sam Davis
OLDSMAR, Fla. – John Terranova entered the promising colt Notah in the Sam F. Davis – just in case.
“If this allowance for Sunday didn’t fill, we were going to go ahead and run in the Sam Davis,” Terranova said early Friday at his Tampa Bay Downs winter base. “We’re happy the allowance did go.”
Notah, off a sharp local maiden score, will stretch out around two turns for the first time when facing six other 3-year-olds – including a pair from the Todd Pletcher powerhouse – in the sixth race Sunday at Tampa. The base purse is $30,500 and the distance is a mile and 40 yards.
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Notah was scratched from a full field of 12 in the Grade 3 Davis in what obviously would have been a daunting assignment. Sunday, he’ll have leading jockey Samy Camacho aboard from post 6 with the Pletcher duo of Cuvier (post 1, Hector Diaz Jr.) and Kingsbarns (post 2, Antonio Gallardo) as his chief opposition.
“He’s only had a couple of runs in him, so he’s got some hoops to jump through, just like the rest of them,” Terranova said. “But we’ve thought this is a good colt from Day 1. We’re in the development stage right now, like all of them.”
Notah, a dark bay colt by Flatter, earned a 71 Beyer Speed Figure in winning here at 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 14. The same afternoon at Gulfstream Park, both Pletcher colts won on debut, with Cuvier getting a 76 at six furlongs and Kingsbarns a 74 going a one-turn mile.
Of the three, perhaps Kingsbarns carries the greatest expectations as a son of Uncle Mo who was an $800,000 2-year-old purchase last March for Spendthrift Farm.
For Pletcher, shipping his 3-year-olds over to Tampa from his Atlantic Coast winter base for two-turn races has been part of the playbook for years. In getting timely preps in them ahead of more demanding engagements, Pletcher has used maiden or first-level allowances for a number of 3-year-olds who eventually won major races, including Always Dreaming, the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner, as well as Vino Rosso, Magnum Moon, and others.
A second allowance ends a solid Sunday card as race 9. With a base purse of $26,500, it’s scheduled for a mile on the turf and is governed by a second-level allowance condition with a $32,000 claiming option.
A couple of 5-year-olds who quickly went through their maiden and first-level conditions but have been stymied in the interim are among the top contenders in an oversubscribed lineup of older horses. They are Hidden Stash (post 3, Jose Ferrer) and Striker (post 5, Gallardo), both of them shipping in from Payson Park.
First post Sunday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the sixth going at 3:17 and the nightcap at 4:50. A new four-day race week will get under way Wednesday following two dark days.
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