OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse’s 3-year-olds train at Palm Meadows, but Tampa Bay Downs has become one of the top proving grounds for his up-and-coming horses.
In recent years, Casse has sent runners like Prospective and Dynamic Sky to Tampa Bay Downs for the track’s 3-year-old stakes series. Dynamic Sky won the Pasco Stakes here last season, and Prospective won the 2012 Tampa Bay Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Art Sherman is the trainer of California Chrome, the winner of Saturday’s $250,750 California Cup Derby for statebreds at Santa Anita. He is quickly becoming the colt’s biggest fan.
On Sunday, Sherman said he was delighted by the way California Chrome burst clear in early stretch to win the race over 1 1/16 miles by 5 1/2 lengths.
“The horse kind of impressed me,” Sherman said. “I was hoping he didn’t move too quickly.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he was doing “great” Sunday morning, and why shouldn’t he have been, in light of Cairo Prince’s outstanding performance Saturday in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes?
Cairo Prince parlayed a perfect trip under jockey Luis Saez into a convincing 5 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull, earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest of his four-race career.
“He’s happy this morning, so I’m happy,” McLaughlin said Sunday. “He came out of the race bright-eyed and feeling great.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – California Chrome proved himself best of the statebreds on Saturday at Santa Anita with an overpowering victory in the $250,000 California Cup Derby, a performance that his trainer, Art Sherman, thought was in him, and which will earn California Chrome a shot to prove himself worth of getting to another Derby, the one in Kentucky on May 3.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cairo Prince passed the first major test for 3-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail and did so with flying colors, drawing away to an impressive 5 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in Saturday’s Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Cairo Prince completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.16, missing the track standard set by the older River Seven five weeks earlier by just 0.43 seconds. His time also was 0.50 seconds faster than another leading Derby prospect, Top Billing, covered the same distance in winning an allowance race earlier on the card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Top Billing gave every indication that he will be a major player on the road to the Kentucky Derby this season when he rallied from last to a very impressive 2 3/4-length victory over the well-regarded Surfing U S A in Saturday’s fourth race at Gulfstream Park.
The victory was the second in three starts for Top Billing, a son of Curlin who suffered his only setback when beaten a neck by another leading Derby prospect, Commissioner, going 1 1/8 miles in a similar first-level allowance here earlier this month.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Classic Giacnroll, the runner-up in the Jerome Stakes here Jan. 4, worked a half-mile in 50.86 seconds Saturday over the Aqueduct inner track in preparation for next Saturday’s $250,000 Withers Stakes. It was the third-fastest of 15 works at the distance.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, is unlikely to start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8 because of ongoing concern over a grabbed quarter.
Shared Belief has not worked since Jan. 3 and did not work as scheduled at Santa Anita on Friday. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said that Shared Belief does not have a scheduled workout in coming days.
“We’re not satisfied with the progress of the foot,” said Hollendorfer, who described the foot as slow to heal. “You have to proceed day by day.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Four years ago, trainer Butch Reid won the Grade 3 Withers Stakes with Afleet Again, who upset four rivals at odds of 24-1.
Next Saturday, when the Withers is run for the 134th time, Reid will try to win it again with Honorable Judge, a full brother to Afleet Again.
“I don’t know if lightning can strike twice or not, but we’ll give it a try,” Reid said.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
