Showing Up much too tough for peers

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Showing Up needs new competition in 2007. The nation's 3-year-old turf horses did not give him much of a fuss in 2006.

Sunday, Showing Up ended his 3-year-old campaign with an emphatic win in the $500,000 Hollywood Derby, his fourth major stakes victory on turf this year.

In the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, Showing Up ($3.60) encountered little resistance from a talented field of nine rivals. Ridden by Cornelio Velasquez, Showing Up rallied from fifth to win by 2 1/4 lengths over Obrigado. Ivan Denisovich, the invader from Ireland, finished third.

Brother Derek, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby earlier this year, was scratched after a pre-dawn bout with colic on Sunday.

Showing Up ran 1 1/4 miles on turf in 1:59.35. Owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson and trained by Barclay Tagg, Showing Up has won 7 of 9 starts and $1,610,500. Earlier this year, he won the Colonial Turf Cup, Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, and Gradeo2 Jamaica Breeders' Cup Handicap.

"He never ceases to amaze me every time he runs," Tagg said. "He fights and he gets the job done."

Typical of the style displayed in his previous wins, Showing Up was always in the first half of the field in the Hollywood Derby.

Velasquez had Showing Up in fifth for the first half-mile, tracking pacesetters Kip Deville and Dark Islander through fractions of 24.34 and 47.99 seconds. Showing Up rallied three-wide on the final turn and was four-wide entering the stretch when he took command.

"I was a little worried when he was in fifth when I thought he'd be in third," Tagg said. Velasquez "had it timed right and everything went well. This is the toughest field he's faced, I think."

Tagg said that Showing Up will be rested for a month before resuming training in Florida early next year.