Busy Weekend For Derby Preps on Both Coasts

[Wandering Eyes]

This weekend's graded stakes races stretch out from coast to coast and feature significant GI Kentucky Derby implications, but not entirely for the reasons we've come to expect. In South Florida, it is business as usual for the Derby preps while on the West Coast all things Kentucky Derby took a strange and unprecedented turn.

On the heels of a very successful GI Pegasus World Cup weekend, Gulfstream Park offers a tremendous card with five graded races, including the 34th running of the GII Holy Bull S. named for the Hall of Famer and 1994 Horse of the Year, who won that year's GI Florida Derby. Forty Kentucky Derby points are on the line with the winner collecting the lion's share, the 20 points instantly launching him into third position behind champion Forte (Violence) and GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and GIII Lecomte S. winner Instant Coffee (Bolt d'Oro) on the current leaderboard.

Since it was first contested in 1991 as the Preview S. the Holy Bull Stakes has had some tremendous runners reach the winner's circle, including Derby winners Go For Gin (1994) and Barbaro (2006). This year eight are expected to break from the gate and all are looking to earn their first Derby points with an initial career stakes win.

Cyclone Mischief (Into Mischief) enters this race off a 5 3/4-length allowance romp at a mile over this surface Jan. 8. The $450,000 KEESEP yearling purchase is out of a half to GSW Suddenbreakingnews (Mineshaft) and comes from the female family of MGIW Composure (Touch Gold).

“I think he's one of the best 3-year-olds in the country, and he's training like one,” trainer Dale Romans said. “There are a lot of good horses out there, but we're in a good spot right now.

“Cyclone is coming into the race as good as he can,” Romans said.

Legacy Isle (Shackleford), who would be undefeated and the only stakes winner so far of the bunch having captured the Mucho Macho Man S. in wire-to-wire fashion on New Year's Day except he was disqualified for bothering a rival in the lane and placed second.

Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott entered two in the Holy Bull, Rocket Can (Into Mischief) and Shadow Dragon (Army Mule).

“Rocket Can broke his maiden and is coming off a good allowance race,” Mott said. “He has sort of improved steadily with each start.”

The GIII Claiborne Swale S. doesn't offer any Derby points and isn't considered a Derby prep, but it is named after the 1984 Derby winner and Hall of Famer who died suddenly eight days after the GI Belmont S. And though not a Derby prep race, some very Derby-type horses have won, most notably 1989 Derby and Preakness runner-up and Belmont winner Easy Goer.

The streaking Super Chow (Lord Nelson) drew the outside in the six-runner test, which will be contested at seven furlongs. The winner of five of his six career races is coming off three straight listed stakes wins and makes a jump back into graded company. He broke his maiden in his debut July 2 at Gulfstream and was third in the GII Saratoga Special before shipping back to Florida to collect his last three wins.

“He's in his best shape ever,” trainer Jorge Delgado said. He's been maturing race to race. He's been showing a lot of class. From race to race, he's a more professional horse. He's becoming a man.”

Not to be overshadowed by the boys, ten fillies are set to race seven-eighths on the main track in the GIII Forward Gal S. The race is named for 1970's Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old filly who was trained by the late Warren A. “Jimmy” Croll, the man also responsible for conditioning Holy Bull.

Atomically (Girvin) is the early favorite in her first start since an even seventh-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 4. It was her first start for trainer Todd Pletcher after being sold privately Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Bernard and Harry Colvin and after winning the FFTBOA Florida Sire My Dear Girl S. over the Gulfstream Park main track Oct. 1.

“I thought it was OK,” Pletcher said of the Breeders' Cup. “Obviously that was against the best 2-year-old fillies in the country in a big field going two turns and all that, but she tried hard. Now we're looking forward to regrouping and getting her going again.

“We were planning on running her in the one before this and she had a little temperature, so it knocked us off course a little bit. We got a little delayed getting her started but she's been training nicely. She's had some success over the track, so I look forward to getting her started here.”

FSS Desert Vixen and Susan's Girl S. winner Lynx (Brethren), second to Atomically in the My Dear Girl, is back for her first race since a third-place finish in the Jan. 1 Cash Run S.

“We're trying to get her back into her old form now as a 3-year-old,” trainer Carlos David said. “Hopefully she can cross the wire first, but if not she'll have it under her belt for the next race and will be a lot more comfortable.”

Ginger Brew S. winner Cairo Consort (Cairo Prince) is the early 2-1 favorite against eight other sophomore turf fillies in the 1 1/16-mile GIII Sweetest Chant S. The Todd Pletcher-trained filly won Woodbine's Catch A Glimpse S. was second in the GI Natalma S. and third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (GI). This race will be her first start beyond a mile.

“It was a good win last time, so we decided to step up and give her a chance in here,” Pletcher said. “We kind of had [turf] in the back of our mind. She has quite a bit of turf in her pedigree and it seemed like she took to it. The distance shouldn't be a problem.”

Other notables set to contest the Sweetest Chant are Sweetlou'sgotaces (Constitution) making her first start as a 3-year-old and since capturing the Tepin S. at Aqueduct Nov. 27, and the undefeated Heavenly Sunday (Candy Ride {Arg}) making her stakes debut.

In 2007 the GI Santa Anita Derby and (GI) Kentucky Derby prep once known as the Santa Catalina S. was renamed to honor one of the most beloved owners in the game of Thoroughbred racing who passed away the year before. The familiar green and yellow silks representing Bob Lewis and his wife Beverly, created in homage to the pair's alma mater, the University of Oregon, were carried by some of the most accomplished runners of the past three decades, including dual classic winners Silver Charm and Charismatic (also the 1999 Horse of the Year), champions Serena's Song, Orientate and Folklore, just to name a few.

This year, four will line up in the GIII $200,000 Robert B. Lewis S., a 1 1/16-mile test offering 41 Road to the Derby points to the top-four finishers on a 20-8-6-4-2 scale. This is where the race's Kentucky Derby implications take a turn. For the first time that anyone can remember, each of the four runners are trained by a single trainer and that trainer–currently–is forbidden from participating in racing at Churchill Downs until after this year's Derby.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has saddled a record ten winners of the Robert B. Lewis–including the last four in a row–sat in a Louisville courtroom for two days this week, his team of high-powered attorneys seeking an injunction against his two-year ban from competing at Churchill Downs following Medina Spirit's post-race positive for the prohibited steroid betamethasone after crossing the wire first in the 2021 Derby. Medina Spirit also won the 2021 Lewis.

The situation is significant simply because Baffert is modern day's most successful trainer when it comes to the Derby, his five official wins trailing only the legendary Ben Jones' six victories. And as is typical heading down the Triple Crown Trail, Baffert is loaded with what can only be described as a couple dozen Derby hopefuls whose owners so far have decided that their loyalty to the trainer or will to win the Derby is greater than any legal battle. Or they believe his punishment by Churchill is unjust and he will finally emerge victorious in one of his many so far unsuccessful bids to seek judicial relief and run in the country's most well-known and prestigious race. It is anyone's guess and a private, personal decision as to why owners keep their top Derby hopefuls in Baffert's care knowing that by the end of this month, based on another new rule Churchill Downs enacted that excludes any runner trained by Baffert after the last day of February totally ineligible for Derby points at all.

So while the racing world awaits a verdict, Baffert continues on with the support of his owners and has a 100 percent chance of winning his 11th Lewis, even if his horses don't earn any Derby points.

Arabian Lion (Justify), as the 7-5 favorite, will lead his stablemates to the gate for the 1 1/16-mile test. The $600,000 OBSAPR 2-year-old was a dismal fifth out of five in the Los Alamitos Futurity (GII) Dec. 17 at odds of 2-5 but has been working lights out for his return here.

Newgate (Into Mischief) hasn't reached the winner's circle since breaking his maiden at Del Mar but was a short second in the GIII Sham S. a month ago. The $850,000 KEESEP yearling was also second to last week's GIII San Vicente S. winner and stablemate Havnameltdown (Uncaptured) in the GIII Bob Hope S. at Del Mar Nov. 20. Maiden winner Hard To Figure (Hard Spun) and maiden Worcester (Empire Maker) round out the Baffert quartet.

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