Big Field for Holy Bull
Although some trainers plan to send their top Derby hopefuls elsewhere to avoid Gulfstream’s problematic three-year-old stakes series …
The Holy Bull is the first major two-turn race for three-year-olds on the Derby Trail at Gulfstream, but when the field is drawn on Thursday several well-regarded prospects will be conspicuously missing. Todd Pletcher is planning to send Bluegrass Cat to Tampa for the Sam F. Davis, Nick Zito is considering the same for allowance winner Hesanoldsalt, and Frank Brother’s First Samurai will race in the seven and a half furlong Hutcheson instead, all because the Holy Bull distance of nine furlongs is the same distance as the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby:
Pletcher said that if Bluegrass Cat runs in the Sam F. Davis, he would very likely run in the Tampa Bay Derby a month later. “If we go in the Sam Davis we’re kind of committed to Tampa all the way and he probably won’t run at Gulfstream this winter.”
Among the possible starters for the Holy Bull are Aventura winner Doctor Decherd, Zito’s Little Cliff and Hemingway’s Key, Pletcher’s My Golden Song and Saint Augustus, and the intriguing Barbaro, who’s undefeated in three starts on the turf and making his dirt debut. “I just feel that right now we have to try the dirt,” said trainer Michael Matz. “We know we have an excellent horse on the turf. I feel for the owner’s sake and the horse’s sake, we have to try the dirt.”
