Watchmaker: Sophomore turf specialists in spotlight over weekend

Let’s talk 3-year-olds.

No, not those 3-year-olds. Instead, let’s discuss for a moment a different group of 3-year-olds: this year’s crop of 3-year-old male turf specialists.

Frankly, I don’t throw the spotlight on turf horses all that often, let alone a subset of turf horses. Look, dirt racing remains king in this country. And I came up in a time when grass horses, even the best of them, were horses who failed to cut it on dirt, although I admit that is slowly changing for the better.
But there is something especially compelling about this year’s group of 3-year-old male turf horses, more so than their predecessors, and a bunch of them were in action Friday and Saturday.

In the East, any list of such horses should begin with Divisidero, who was a most-impressive, if narrow winner of the Pennine Ridge Stakes on Saturday at Belmont. Divisidero, a deep closer by nature, made two moves in the Pennine Ridge. His first was an early five-wide run into contention on the backstretch to get closer to a slow pace that could have compromised his late kick. Divisidero’s second move, which was remarkable, considering it had no business being as effective as it was after making that first move, was to reel in and nail as fine a colt as Takeover Target in the final strides.

Divisidero and his Pennine Ridge performance were as cool as it gets in this game. He is just a fun horse to watch, and I hope trainer Buff Bradley made a score when Divisidero won his debut only four starts ago in February at Gulfstream. How could a horse this good have gone off at 25-1 in his first start?

Even though he wasn’t quite good enough after getting a better trip than Divisidero, the Pennine Ridge runner-up Takeover Target remains an immensely promising colt. He had raced only twice prior to Saturday – races he won in dominating fashion – and he has every license to improve. And Takeover Target’s stablemate Startup Nation, who finished third in the Pennine Ridge, is a good one, too. Startup Nation was making his first start since a tough-trip outing in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and he was more compromised by the slow pace than Divisidero was.

Out West, Bolo is the man. Bolo was given his chance on the Triple Crown trail after a victory on turf late last year in the Eddie Logan that was a visual knockout, and he performed creditably, finishing third in the San Felipe and Santa Anita Derby before finishing 12th in the Kentucky Derby. But on Friday, Bolo got back to what he does best in an overnight race on the turf at Santa Anita, and he toyed with his overmatched opposition. Bolo on turf is the polar opposite of Divisidero. He’s a frontrunner, and it is a real treat watching him play “catch me if you can,” ears pricked all the way.

The richest race of the weekend was the $500,000 Penn Mile on Saturday evening at Penn National, and Force the Pass overcame some traffic trouble to produce a furious late run and prevail in a blanket finish. This really should have been Force the Pass’s fourth straight win. He had trouble in the Murphy on the Preakness undercard and was unlucky to be a narrowly beaten second in that one.

But two out of the Penn Mile who I think really bear watching going forward are Granny’s Kitten and Ocho Ocho Ocho. Granny’s Kitten, who romped in his only start last year and did the same in his recent seasonal bow, was buried on the rail for much of the race and did very well just to get third.Ocho Ocho Ocho, who was given his chance against the best dirt 3-year-olds in the Blue Grass and Kentucky Derby and came up well short (I’m not coun

ting his start in the San Felipe; he had no chance to run that day), made his turf debut in the Penn Mile. And he ran sneakily well. He was close to a fast and ultimately destructive early pace, and his willing fourth meant he finished better than anyone else who was close to that pace.

Finally, let’s also mention Face the Music, a good-looking winner of an overnight race Friday at Belmont. Face the Music showed flashes of ability last year and signaled early this month that he took a step forward when second to Takeover Target. Face the Music adds depth to what is a very intriguing group.

Short notes

** Work All Week, last year’s champion male sprinter, suffered his first defeat on dirt in his 11th start on the surface when second Saturday in the Aristides at Churchill. Work All Week was simply overpowered in the stretch by the much-improved Alsvid. It would be silly to downgrade Work All Week off this loss as he was making his first start since he won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. But I must admit I was a little unsettled how he went from looking like a horse with a ton of run to one completely out of gas so quickly.

** Spanish Queen, who won the American Oaks at Santa Anita, the weekend’s lone Grade 1 event, certainly wasn’t hurt by the traffic trouble third-place finisher Consumer Credit ran into in the stretch. But even with a clean trip, I don’t think Consumer Credit was beating Spanish Queen. In any way, shape, or form.

** Catch a Flight continued his ascendency in the handicap division with his victory in the Californian, also at Santa Anita. Catch a Flight previously won the Precisionist and was third in the Big Cap behind Shared Belief. But you have to give props to Moreno’s effort in the Californian. Moreno finished second, beaten just a half-length, after drawing the dirty-work trip of keeping Big Cazanova honest on the early lead, all while Catch a Flight sat third early in the garden stalking spot.