Post 13 no fun for Tagg

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will be a lot more at stake than just a $100,000 purse when 13 3-year-olds get their first class check of the season in Saturday's Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

The Holy Bull is the first major race of the winter for 3-year-olds based in south Florida and serves as a prep to both the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes and $1 million Florida Derby later this meet.

The race often is a harbinger of things to come; both the 1998 and 2000 Holy Bull winners, Cape Town and Hal's Hope, went on to win the Florida Derby, as did last year's runner-up, Harlan's Holiday. Go for Gin, who won this race in 1994 when it was known as the Preview Stakes, went on to even greater glory by capturing that year's Kentucky Derby.

While several of the more notable 3-year-olds stabled here this winter, such as Toccet, Sky Mesa, and Trust N Luck, will pass the Holy Bull to await the Feb. 15 Fountain of Youth, this year's field is still a good one. Topping the field are Added Edge and Funny Cide, who figure to have their perfect records seriously challenged by Bham, Powerful Touch, Not for Profit, and Spite the Devil.

Trainers Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, who between them have won six Kentucky Derbies and three previous runnings of the Holy Bull, are also represented - Zito by Seek Gold and Lukas by Boston Park.

The remainder of the field includes Patriotic Flame, Christmas Away, Flank Attack, Offlee Wild, and Supervisor.

Added Edge and Funny Cide will start from opposite ends of the gate. Added Edge, the Canadian 2-year-old champion and winner of the Grade 3 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct in his only U.S. appearance, will break from post 1 under jockey Patrick Husbands. Funny Cide had the misfortune to pull the extreme outside in the bulky lineup when post positions were drawn on Wednesday.

Funny Cide's trainer Barclay Tagg was predictably upset upon learning the results of the post position draw.

"I hate it. All that work for nothing," Tagg said. "This is just too tight a little track to get that kind of post. I've been pointing him for this race and he's doing great. If we decide not to run and look for something else, who knows how he'll be doing at that time."

Spite the Devil, who Funny Cide defeated by a neck to win the Sleepy Hollow Stakes in his 2-year-old finale, did not fare much better at the post position draw. He will break from post 12.