ALBANY, Calif. – When bloodstock agent Mersad Metanovic purchased a Street Boss weanling for $10,000, he was hoping he’d made a bargain purchase of a good, useful horse.
Little did he imagine that he’d just purchased a colt who would win the race he’d always dreamed of winning, the El Camino Real Derby.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Cinco Charlie is scheduled to start in the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico on Saturday. The multiple stakes winner drew post 5 in a field of six for the 1 1/16-mile race. Casey Lambert has the mount on the horse, who is owned by Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt.
Cinco Charlie picked up the fifth stakes win of his career in last month’s Riley Allison Derby, a Sunland race repositioned from its traditional December date to January.
The Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes, a major prep for the Arkansas Derby, has been rescheduled for Sunday, said David Longinotti, director of racing for Oaklawn Park. The Southwest was to have been run Monday but was canceled due to a winter storm system that landed in Arkansas.
Oaklawn was unable to train Tuesday due to a second overnight freeze. The loss of two consecutive dates of training led officials to push the Southwest from a potential Saturday date to Sunday.
FAR RIGHT struck first in the 3-year-old series at Oaklawn Park when he won the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes over a drifting MR. Z. The pair was set to meet again Monday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes, the first major prep for the Arkansas Derby, but the race was canceled due to inclement weather. The Southwest is to be rescheduled for either Saturday or Sunday, according to Oaklawn spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyt.
Top 3-year-old males
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of just eight 3-year-olds, led by Holy Bull Stakes winner Upstart, was drawn Monday for Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes. The Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth is the last of eight stakes on Saturday’s card, which also features the 2015 debut of the multiple Eclipse Award winner Main Sequence in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida.
With the exception of EL KABEIR, the majority of the locally based 3-year-old contingent is comprised of deep bench players from top outfits such as Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown. We’re including horses based out of town who are targeting the New York preps such as undefeated runners OCEAN KNIGHT and FAR FROM OVER who have already won over the inner track but who are doing their training in south Florida. The most accomplished 3-year-old filly on the grounds is CONDO COMMANDO, the Grade 1 Spinaway winner who is slated to make her 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Busher Stakes.
The fillies are better than the colts, or so it appears as we head toward the second round of 3-year-old stakes races at this meet, the Rachel Alexandra and the Risen Star, both on Feb. 21. INTERNATIONAL STAR shipped in and won the Lecomte on Jan. 17, a race that went slower than its filly companion race, the Silverbulletday, won in sharp front-running fashion by I’M A CHATTERBOX.
A foot abscess derailed Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner TEXAS RED; his status for the Santa Anita Derby and/or Kentucky Derby is uncertain. He will attempt to maintain fitness with a swimming regimen at a layup facility.
Meanwhile, champion 2-year-old male AMERICAN PHAROAH has not raced since late September, but he is working steadily for a comeback. The next major local stakes for Derby aspirants is the Grade 2 San Felipe on March 7.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Since 1968, the famed eton blue and brown silks of the Whitney family have been carried just once in the Kentucky Derby, when Birdstone ran eighth in 2004. Gorgeous Bird could revive a century-old tradition by running in the 141st Derby, but a couple of major tests await the gray colt, the first being the Fountain of Youth Stakes next Saturday, Feb. 21, at Gulfstream Park.
“This is all about the horse and the owner,” said trainer Ian Wilkes.
