The $120,000 Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park on Saturday is the local stepping-stone to next month’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby. A field of 10 is set for the Mine That Bird, which will be run over 1 1/16 miles.
Rebranded, winner of the Riley Allison Futurity, should go favored from the rail, with Proceed, who is undefeated in two starts, the possible second choice for what will be his first start since December.
Louies Flower, who won the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in December, finished an uncharacteristic 12th in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on Monday. He was seeking his fourth straight win and came into the race packing the field’s best last-out Beyer Speed Figure, a 91.
“He came back good,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains Louies Flower for Wesley Melcher. “It was kind of one of those races that nothing went right. He was over the top, too fresh. He was keyed up in the paddock. In hindsight, I wish I had run him in the Smarty Jones” in January.
Fiftyshadesofgold is getting on the Kentucky Oaks trail. The filly who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93 for her comeback win in last Saturday night’s Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston is being pointed to the Fair Grounds Oaks, trainer Bret Calhoun said Wednesday.
The Grade 2, $400,000 prep for the Kentucky Oaks will be run in New Orleans on March 29. It will be the two-turn debut for Fiftyshadesofgold, winner of last year’s Debutante at Churchill Downs who won at seven furlongs in the Two Altazano division of the Texas Stallion Stakes.
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.
The rescheduled version of the Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park wound up with three fewer horses, including a pair of contenders from the original field who are now ineligible.
The Grade 2, $300,000 Fritchie, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares, was pushed back one week to this Saturday after last Saturday’s program was canceled due to a snowstorm. When entries were retaken Wednesday, the lineup shrank from 10 to seven horses.
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.
