Turfway Park: Pair of Grade 1 winners clash in Spiral Stakes
FLORENCE, Ky. – Winter at Turfway Park is never easy, but the one that ended Thursday with the arrival of spring was particularly brutal. It wasn’t just the nasty weather but also the way Turfway continues to struggle mightily with putting out a decent racing product and dealing with incessant rumors of its imminent demise.
All that will be temporarily forgotten Saturday when Turfway almost certainly will send a horse or two to the Kentucky Derby by way of its annual showcase, the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes. The 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race drew a full field of 12 3-year-olds and is just cause for, as a local radio ad has been touting, “one big springtime party.”[bc_video_id:319112:]
Almost 20,000 ontrack fans can be expected to see a compelling renewal of the Spiral, which is worth 85 points toward eligibility to the May 3 Derby, including 50 to the winner. Tamarando, a stretch-running shipper for the Hall of Fame duo of trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and jockey Russell Baze, will start from post 4 as the 3-1 morning-line favorite in a well-matched group that includes We Miss Artie and the Wayne Catalano duo of Solitary Ranger and Poker Player as top contenders.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Hollendorfer is known as a realistic sort whose luck with the Derby has been anything but good. He and Baze won this race in 1998 with Event of the Year, who was injured a few weeks thereafter, derailing their Derby hopes. Globalize won the 2000 Spiral and was scratched off the Derby program. And just recently, Hollendorfer officially called off a run at the Derby for Shared Belief, the 2-year-old champion of 2013.
Tamarando, a California-bred by Bertrando, does not necessarily have a Derby pedigree, but if the colt runs well enough Saturday to earn the points, Hollendorfer won’t rule out the Derby.
“I’ve always gone on the theory that all good horses can run both short and long, so I think if you check out the facts on that, most horses that end up in the Derby can show speed and carry it,” he said. “That’s where we’re at with this horse. He’ll take us there; we’re not going to take him there.”
Pretty much everyone else would “Spiral up” toward the Derby if given the chance. That is especially true for We Miss Artie, whose owner, Ken Ramsey, said: “I want to make the Derby with whatever horses I can, pure and simple.”
The Spiral typically does not draw a Grade 1 winner, but Tamarando won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity last summer, and We Miss Artie (post 11, John Velazquez) won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity over the Keeneland Polytrack last fall.
An Ontario-bred son of Artie Schiller trained by Todd Pletcher, We Miss Artie has sandwiched a pair of weak dirt efforts around a sharp runner-up finish in a listed turf stakes, seemingly confirming suspicions that he does best over turf or synthetics and might struggle over the dirt at Churchill Downs.
“I don’t care if it’s Poly, grass, dirt, broken glass, whatever,” Ramsey said. “I’m pushing 80 and not getting any younger. If this can be a ticket into the Derby, I’m going to take it.”
Catalano said Solitary Ranger would be considered for the Derby with a victory Saturday, despite the trainer having previously stated that the colt has “distance limitations.” Solitary Ranger (post 8, Florent Geroux) looks like the lone speed in the Spiral, with Asserting Bear (post 2, Joe Rocco Jr.), Coastline (post 5, Stewart Elliott), Almost Famous (post 9, Calvin Borel), and Harry’s Holiday (post 10, Rosie Napravnik) among those likely to give closest early chase.
Among the back runners are Tamarando, Poker Player (post 3, Channing Hill), and another Pletcher runner, All Tied Up (post 7, Luis Saez), whose owner, Dogwood Stable, won this race in 1990 with the eventual Derby runner-up and Preakness winner Summer Squall.
Longshots in this 43rd Spiral are Big Bazinga (post 1, Luis Contreras), Smart Cover (post 6, Corey Lanerie), and Arctic Slope (post 12, Albin Jiminez).
Arctic Slope, third to We Miss Artie in the Breeders’ Futurity, will be making his first start in almost four months.
“He has done really well all winter,” trainer Ken McPeek said.
Besides Summer Squall, the Spiral has produced four other classics winners from its 42 prior runnings, most notably Derby winners Lil E. Tee (1992) and Animal Kingdom (2011). Until Black Onyx was scratched last year on the morning before the Derby, six straight Spiral winners had run back in the Derby.
The Spiral, currently sponsored by Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati but sponsored by a variety of other entities since its 1972 inception, will be run as the 11th of 12 Saturday races. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, with the Spiral going at 6:28. One other Grade 3 race, the $125,000 Bourbonette Oaks, directly precedes it as race 10. Admission is $10.
The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 55. TVG will have daylong coverage, and Mike Battaglia will have the race call.
