She Be Wild sits out Ashland prep

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Wayne Catalano will put his training skills to the test again.

Catalano scratched She Be Wild, last year's 2-year-old filly champion, out of Saturday's Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs and instead will train her up to the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on April 3. The Ashland, run over a synthetic surface, will be She Be Wild's second race of the year and first in nine weeks.

"We will test my training skills once again, like they did with Dreaming of Anna," said Catalano, who won the 2006 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with Dreaming of Anna off a seven-week layoff and a surface switch. "I was running on the grass. I hadn't run in seven weeks. I was running on grass and the race was on dirt. I had to show what I was taught."

Catalano said he scratched She Be Wild out of the Florida Oaks because of concerns about the condition of the track after the Tampa area was hit with a deluge of rain on Friday, just around the time Catalano was getting ready to ship her from Palm Meadows.

"I had to make a decision to put her on the truck," Catalano said. "The weather was so bad that I figured it would be nothing but a hard racetrack, a muddy racetrack, or a washed out racetrack."

The official track condition at Tampa on Saturday was fast.

Though She Be Wild is 4 for 5 over synthetic surfaces, her one loss over such a surface came in the Alcibiades at Keeneland, where she finished second to Negligee, who is expected to make her 3-year-old debut in the Ashland.

Best Actor possible for Florida Derby

Best Actor, among Catalano's top 3-year-old colts, is possible for the Florida Derby, the trainer said. Catalano said he is also considering that horse for the Swale, a seven-furlong race on the same day.

"I'm trying to get in the best spot I can to get some graded earnings," Catalano said. "He's ready to run a good race, and we want to make sure it's a good spot."

Best Actor, a son of Rock Hard Ten, has just a maiden win from five starts. Most recently, he finished third behind the highly regarded Drosselmeyer in a first-level allowance race here on Jan. 31.

Catalano said he will definitely run Dixie Band in the Swale. Dixie Band won his first three starts, including the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity. Dixie Band has not run since finishing 10th in the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 10.