Shug McGaughey has run an odds-on favorite in the Kentucky Derby, runner-up Easy Goer in 1989, so he has no delusions about how a colt named Admiral Perry matches up with the top 3-year-olds of 2011.
McGaughey went out of his way this week to put Admiral Perry on a northbound van from his Florida base for Turfway Park, where on Saturday night the dark bay colt will be one of the favorites in the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – That huge sigh of relief coming from Palm Meadows early Thursday afternoon wasn’t from a consignor who’d just peddled one of his 2-year-olds at the Fasig-Tipton sale. It came from trainer Nick Zito after learning his top Kentucky Derby contender Dialed In would get the all-important prep race he’d been looking for Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
Kentucky Derby prospects are like bacon. You can never have too much.
Ramon Dominguez rode J P’s Gusto to a second-place finish in the Southwest Stakes two weeks ago, rode Gourmet Dinner to a second-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes last week, is on Stay Thirsty in the Gotham Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct, and is scheduled to ride Brethren in the Tampa Bay Derby next weekend. That gives him four potential prospects to weed through over the next two months, but with no guarantee that any of them will pan out.
Take one horse-crazy kid from Beverly Hills, throw him in the deep fryer with one of America’s glamour stables, simmer 20 years, shave head, and voila! – out pops the top money-winning trainer at the 2010 Hollywood Park fall meet, complete with a budding star poised to swing for the big money as a 3-year-old of 2011.
Piece of cake, right? Is this an easy game or what? But then, it hasn’t been quite that simple for Peter Miller, the trainer of Hollywood Futurity winner Comma to the Top for movie moguls Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, and Kevin Tsujihara.
Fusa Code, who won his maiden in the $100,000 Borderland Derby last weekend at Sunland Park, is being considered for a start in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby, said his trainer, Steve Asmussen. The 1 1/8-mile race is March 27.
Fusa Code came into the Borderland off a third-place finish in a maiden special weight route at Santa Anita on Feb. 3. The horse has since returned to Southern California and Asmussen said if he is doing as well as he was up to the Borderland that the Sunland Derby will become an option for Fusa Code.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Smoke It Right has not made a wrong move in three career starts and with the right kind of performance Saturday in the $60,000 Mountain Valley at Oaklawn he could be headed to the Arkansas Derby, said his co-owner and trainer, Benard Chatters.
“We’re going to try to get to the big races,” Chatters said. “He’s a pretty nice kind of colt.”
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Stay Thirsty will try to step out of the shadow of his more heralded stablemate Uncle Mo and step onto the Triple Crown trail when he heads a field of nine entered to run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Mucho Macho Man will skip the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby, trainer Rick Dutrow said there is a chance that Flashpoint could make his two-turn debut in the Grade 1 fixture. Flashpoint remained undefeated with a spectacular 7 1/4-length victory over Travelin Man in Saturday’s Grade 2 Hutcheson, a performance for which he earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
Dutrow said Wednesday that nothing definite has been picked out for Flashpoint’s next start but that many options are being considered, including the Florida Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $100,000 Timely Writer Handicap, the race trainer Todd Pletcher has earmarked for Eclipse Award winner Uncle Mo’s 3-year-old debut, has closed with 36 nominations. The one-mile Timely Writer will be run March 12.
Uncle Mo is one of 13 horses that Pletcher nominated for the Timely Writer. Pletcher’s other nominees include Travelin Man, runner-up in Saturday’s Grade 2 Hutcheson, and Stay Thirsty, who is expected to run Saturday in the Gotham at Aqueduct.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mucho Macho Man, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star, will return to Fair Grounds to have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 26.
Trainer Kathy Ritvo said she met with principal owner Dean Reeves on Tuesday, at which point the pair decided to bring Mucho Macho Man back to New Orleans rather than keep him here for the $1 million Florida Derby the following weekend.
Mucho Macho Man is owned in partnership by Reeves and the Dream Team Racing Stable.
