HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Four prospective starters for the $1 million Florida Derby turned in their final works for that important Kentucky Derby prep Saturday.
The group, working at three different venues on two different coasts, included Audible and Promises Fulfilled, winners of the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth stakes, respectively, earlier this winter at Gulfstream Park.
NEW ORLEANS – In 1988, George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis in the presidential election, the Redskins won the Super Bowl, Sonny Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, and Winning Colors won the Kentucky Derby, with 25-year-old jockey Gary Stevens riding for 52-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
A lot has happened in the 30 years since then, but Stevens and Lukas – both long enshrined in the Hall of Fame – are still going strong and are one race away from reuniting for another try at the Derby.
“We’ve outlasted ’em,” Lukas said Thursday.
The second-to-last round of Kentucky Derby preps had dazzling performances, a controversial disqualification and a confusing situation that we at Beyer Central sometimes encounter.
By impression, I would rank the San Felipe (101), Rebel (97), Gotham (95), and Tampa Bay Derby (94) in the exact order of the Beyer Speed Figures earned. And I would put Justify’s 101 in an optional claimer in a separate, somewhat mysterious category.
Trainer Todd Pletcher already has taken down the Holy Bull Stakes with Audible and the Rebel Stakes with Magnum Moon, but if he wins a third Kentucky Derby prep race, the $1 million Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, Pletcher will be bucking his own history.
Noble Indy finished a solid-if-unspectacular third Feb. 17 in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez believe the colt has more to give, and in an effort to bring forth a fuller breadth of Noble Indy’s talent, Pletcher will race him in blinkers for the first time Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS – Jeff Bloom always has wanted to be in the Derby. When he was a jockey, it was his dream. And he got a derby, all right. It was just a bit north of Louisville in Winnipeg.
The 1985 Manitoba Derby was the biggest victory for Bloom during a riding career that began at Del Mar in 1982 and lasted less than a decade. Fast forward 25 years – after he stopped riding, got a degree in finance, and melded his equine and financial knowledge into running his business, Bloom Racing – and Bloom finds himself one race away from finally being in the Kentucky Derby.
Although modern genetics wags an admonitory finger, we persist in thinking in terms of sire lines and their defining characteristics. We nod knowledgeably each time a small, muscular, compact horse emerges from the Northern Dancer line, even though descendants of that epochal stallion now come in every shape and size imaginable.
Restoring Hope is being pointed for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday, said trainer Bob Baffert. The 1 1/8-mile race awards 85 points for the Kentucky Derby on a scale of 50-20-10-5.
Baffert said Flavien Prat has the mount on Restoring Hope, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89 for a maiden special weight route win last month at Santa Anita.
Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes; 1 1/16 miles; Oaklawn Park; March 17, 2018
(50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)
Winner: Magnum Moon, by Malibu Moon
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Luis Saez
Owner: Robert and Lawana Low
Beyer Speed Figure: 97
