Thoroughbred racing badly needs a 3-year-old star.
The sport’s popularity – as everybody knows – has been declining for years. Racing gets minimal attention on network television, and it has disappeared from most sports pages during most of the year.
NEW ORLEANS – Finnegans Wake likes to gawk. The rawboned 3-year-old shipped from trainer Dale Romans’s base at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida to Fair Grounds on March 21. It was not until Wednesday morning during a routine gallop that he seemed to have really gotten used to the place.
“He’s a horse that really needs to get acclimated into his surroundings,” said Tammy Fox, the former jockey who is Romans’s longtime partner and a regular work rider for the stable. “He looks around a lot. He’s like a kid. Today was the first day he was really focused out there.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As good as Union Rags ran last time out in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, trainer Michael Matz expects an even better performance Saturday, when Union Rags heads the field in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, which drew a field of nine Wednesday at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dullahan, currently among the top 10 3-year-olds in this week’s Derby Watch, remains on target to have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 14 despite missing several days of training due to a splint injury.
“He popped a splint, he missed some training, but he’s doing fine now,” said trainer Dale Romans while watching Dullahan gallop over a muddy track at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday. “And he sure looks good to me out there this morning.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – As much as things can be normal with the boss in a hospital 11 times zones away, life around trainer Bob Baffert’s stable has continued this week.
Chief assistant Jimmy Barnes has been in frequent contact with Baffert since the Hall of Fame trainer suffered a heart attack in Dubai on Monday morning. Barnes has overseen the stable’s Santa Anita team this week as the buildup to Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks and the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7 intensifies.
Baffert, Barnes said, has been kept fully aware of the stable’s developments.
WHO’S HOT
With their lucrative victories over the weekend, both Daddy Nose Best, who won the Sunland Derby, and Went the Day Well, who captured the Spiral Stakes, muscled their way onto the Derby Watch top 20 this week. Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, has Daddy Nose Best at 25-1 on his Kentucky Derby future line, with Went the Day Well at 30-1.
HALLANDALE, BEACH, Fla. – Union Rags drew post 6 and El Padrino post 8 when a field of nine was entered Wednesday for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Union Rags, winner of the Fountain of Youth Stakes, is the 6-5 favorite on the morning line of Chuck Streva of Gulfstream Park. El Padrino, winner of the Risen Star, is next at 2-1.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The results of several key prep races in recent weeks have led to seven new names for the third and final pool of the 2012 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens its three-day run Friday at noon Eastern and will be kept open long enough Sunday evening to accommodate the running of the Louisiana Derby.
These 3-year-olds keep running faster. By the time they all reach Kentucky, it may take a very serious Beyer Figure to win the Derby. Unlike last year when most of the top 3-year-olds began to regress about this time, this group appears to be getting stronger.
Each weekend, another horse seems to find his way on to the Big Beyer list. They are even running Big Beyers at Sunland Park these days.
