Rebranded’s value went up earlier this week without him even lifting a hoof. The probable favorite for the $120,000 Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park on Saturday, he was part of a Saratoga maiden race that ended up producing the top two finishers in Monday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest at Oaklawn Park.
“After they ran the Southwest the other day, his stock rose,” said Justin Evans, who trains Rebranded for owner Tony Pennington.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Fountain of Youth Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park is worth $400,000, and it’s a Grade 2 event – all that certainly worthwhile in and of itself. But the race carries even more importance in regard to the Kentucky Derby. It’s like having jumbo stone crabs and key lime pie.
Emmett Park was one of only six horses with more than one win among the 16 3-year-olds entered in Saturday’s Risen Star, but that meant nothing under the conditions of the race.
In the event the Risen Star overfills, which it did, preference is given to entrants by lifetime earnings, not wins, and Emmett Park’s 2 for 2 record at Turfway Park this winter had earned him a mere $27,300.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Two days after winning last year’s Kentucky Derby with Orb, trainer Shug McGaughey was pulling into the parking lot of the place where he gets his eyeglasses near his home on Long Island, N.Y., when the phone rang. It was his good friend, Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells.
“That’s just the bait,” Parcells, a two-time winner of the Super Bowl, told McGaughey.
McGaughey already knew it. Like the fish McGaughey likes to catch on his off days, he was hooked.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Fountain of Youth is not the only race on Saturday’s outstanding program likely to have Florida Derby and perhaps Kentucky Derby implications. The sixth race on the card, a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming event, drew an outstanding field of 10 3-year-olds, many of whom have Derby aspirations. Among that group are the Todd Pletcher-trained pair of Constitution and Matterhorn as well as Tonalist, Wicked Strong, and Mexikoma.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Honor Code breezed an easy half-mile in 49.55 seconds at Gulfstream on Wednesday. The work was the second for Honor Code since he shipped here from Payson Park after missing some training time due to bruised ankles earlier this winter.
NEW ORLEANS – Bond Holder will be scratched from the Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds due to body soreness caused by a rough flight from Los Angeles to New Orleans, trainer Doug O’Neill said Wednesday.
Bond Holder would have been among the favorites in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star. In September, he won the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes, subsequently finishing fourth, beaten about three lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and fourth, beaten about nine lengths, in the Dec. 14 CashCall Futurity, Bond Holder’s most recent race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth drew a field of 13 talented 3-year-olds, it failed to attract the top three finishers from the Grade 2 Holy Bull here last month – Cairo Prince, Conquest Titan, and Intense Holiday.
Cairo Prince was not even nominated to the Fountain of Youth, with his connections having made the decision weeks ago to bypass the race and await the $1 million Florida Derby on March 29. Intense Holiday, trained by Todd Pletcher, is running Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2 Risen Star.
Although their credentials stood out, the winners of the two stakes here over the holiday weekend just managed to get the job done.
Tamarando, a Grade 1 winner, rallied from last to win the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby by a half-length on Saturday. Zeewat, who had more stakes wins, four, than the rest of the field combined, won the $50,000 Lost in the Fog in the final stride Monday.
