HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A decision on whether to give the Kentucky Derby trail a shot is pending as Fire At Will continues to work back into shape after upsetting the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in his latest start.
“We’re still talking about it,” said Mike Maker, who trains Fire At Will for the Three Diamonds Farm of Kirk Wycoff.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Shug McGaughey will be looking to go down the Kentucky Derby trail with Greatest Honour when he saddles the Tapit colt Saturday for the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, the first of three major Gulfstream Park preps toward the May 1 Derby.
“I do think he has a chance to be a nice horse,” McGaughey said. “I think he’ll run as far as they want to run.”
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Essential Quality, the odds-on favorite to be named champion 2-year-old of 2020 when the Eclipse Awards are announced this week, will make his 3-year-old debut in the Southwest Stakes on Feb. 15 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Points races for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks are the highlights of the coming weekend at Gulfstream, with the Holy Bull and Forward Gal anchoring a busy Saturday program spotlighting 3-year-olds.
Sittin On Go, winner of the Grade 3 Iroquois on the 2020 Kentucky Derby undercard, will make his seasonal debut in the Grade 3, $200,000 Holy Bull, a 1 1/16-mile race offering Derby points on a 10-4-2-1 basis. The Brody’s Cause colt had his fifth breeze since a short layoff, going five furlongs here Saturday in 1:01.
Nominations have been released for Festival Preview Day at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 6, when the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis is foremost among the four stakes to be run that day at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.
Most of the 37 3-year-olds nominated to the $200,000 Sam Davis have done little more than get through their maiden condition. Still, it’s a Kentucky Derby points qualifier (10-4-2-1) that should serve as a breakthrough for the winner.
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as a solid favorite over Life Is Good after three days of betting into Pool 2 of the 2021 Kentucky Derby Future Wager. The pool opened Friday at noon Eastern and ran through 6 p.m. Sunday.
The field closed at 9-5, followed by Life Is Good (7-1), Essential Quality (8-1), Caddo River (13-1), Concert Tour (16-1), and Keepmeinmind (19-1). The lowest $2 exacta will-pay is Life Is Good over the field (24-5), worth $36.80.
Listed, $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, one mile, Oaklawn, Jan. 22, 2021
(10 Derby qualifying points for first, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Caddo River, by Hard Spun
Trainer: Brad Cox
Jockey: Florent Geroux
Owner: Shortleaf Stable Inc.
Beyer Speed Figure: 92
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Capo Kane, the Jerome Stakes winner, returned to the work tab Wednesday at Parx, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.96 in preparation for an expected start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 6.
The work was the fastest of seven moves at the distance that day.
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Trainer Harold Wyner said Capo Kane worked by himself and “came out of the work very well.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are no fewer than seven ownership entities listed for a 3-year-old named Tarantino, but it was one person with a singular notion that will lead to the colt making his dirt debut next Saturday in the Holy Bull Stakes.
“It was my idea,” said trainer Rudy Brisset. “There’s a lot of teamwork involved, obviously, when you have that many people involved, and you have to talk things through. But I get on the horse every day, and he’s bred for the dirt, so the group agreed to try this.”
On Nov. 6, Hot Rod Charlie finished second at 94-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, losing by three-quarters of a length to Essential Quality. On Dec. 19, The Great One finished second at 33-1 by a nose to Spielberg in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity.
Both are trained by Doug O’Neill, who is hopeful the longshots of the late autumn can become well-backed winners on the next two Saturdays at Santa Anita.
