OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Can another legitimate Kentucky Derby horse emerge from Aqueduct in the winter?
Last year, Revolutionary scored a narrow victory in the Withers Stakes, won the Louisiana Derby next time out, and finished third in the Kentucky Derby.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
OLDSMAR, Fla. – The worst-case scenario Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs is the Sam F. Davis Stakes will be a nice, competitive race on what shapes up as a terrific 12-race program.
The best case: The winner of the Grade 3 race will run off the TV screen and right into the Kentucky Derby discussion.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Cousin Stephen was a disappointing favorite in one of those rugged first-level allowance races at Gulfstream Park early this month. In actuality, the performance wasn’t that bad, but trainer Chad Brown believes the colt can do better.
[Sam F. Davis Stakes: Get PPs, watch Saturday's card live]
“He scoped with significant mucus in his last race,” Brown said. “I’m just going to draw a line through it and run him in this stake as I had planned to do if he had run better.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey said Wednesday that Honor Code had missed 10 days of training after “bruising up his back ankles a little bit” and was now unlikely to make the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on Feb. 22.
Honor Code, who closed his 2-year-old campaign defeating Cairo Prince in the Grade 2 Remsen, has been training at Payson Park, where he had a couple of easy three-furlong works on Dec. 31 and Jan. 18.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In some ways, George “Chip” McEwen is your typical Thoroughbred owner, scouting the sales ring for horses that can take him to the sport’s big races.
In one way, at least, McEwen is atypical in that the success of his stable will benefit many more people than himself. McEwen races under the moniker Wounded Warrior Stables and donates 10 percent of his stable’s purse earnings to charities that benefit wounded or ill war veterans.
Shared Belief remains the clear Kentucky Derby favorite until one of the contenders starts running triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures or Shared Belief makes his 2014 debut and does not run back to his 2013 form.
Still, I am watching all the horses trying to catch up and have been quite impressed by what I am seeing. From Jan. 18 to Jan. 25, I watched three performances that suggest this class of 3-year-olds may have quality and quantity.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – In the new era of the Kentucky Derby points system, Tampa Bay Downs – like all other American tracks – is beholden to the whims of Churchill Downs officials who assign points to Derby preps.
The first Derby prep of the Tampa season comes up Saturday, and these are the points assigned to the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes: zero.
Last year, the first year for the points system, the Davis was worth 10 points to the winner, Falling Sky, who wound up 19th in the Kentucky Derby at 39-1.
New Year’s Day, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was assigned top weight of 126 pounds in the Experimental Free Handicap rankings for 2-year-olds of 2013, which were released Wednesday by The Jockey Club.
New Year’s Day was ranked one pound higher than both Havana, who finished second in the BC Juvenile, and Shared Belief, the unbeaten winner of the CashCall Futurity who was the Eclipse Award winner as champion male 2-year-old of 2013.
On Sunday, trainer Tom Amoss sent out Rise Up for a half-mile work in 49.80 seconds, the colt’s first breeze since he won the $1 million Delta Jackpot on Nov. 23 by six lengths.
Rise Up was freshened at a Florida farm for much of December before rejoining Amoss’s Fair Grounds stable. His connections are targeting the Grade 2 Risen Star on Feb. 22 for Rise Up’s first start at 3.
“His work went well, and things will get more intense as he goes forward now,” Amoss said.
Unknown Road gelded
The connections of Ria Antonia, the filly who was placed first through disqualification in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall, have changed plans and now intend to race her in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes rather than the Risen Star Stakes when she makes her 3-year-old debut Feb. 22.
Ron Paolucci, Ria Antonia’s principal owner, proclaimed just after the BC Juvenile Fillies his desire to point Ria Antonia to the 2014 Kentucky Derby, and the Risen Star for males has been her goal since Ria Antonia resumed steady training in December following a short rest.
