Derby Preps
Saturday Line-Up (Updated)
Oaks prep, Derby preps, and two big stars making their first starts of the year:
The NTRA, which unveiled a fresh new web site look last Friday, launches a new feature, NTRA Live!, a series of webcasts hosted by Randy Moss, this Saturday. Beginning at 6:00 PM, racing fans with an Internet connection anywhere in the world will be able to watch a live video stream — free! — of both the New Orleans Ladies and Santa Margarita Handicap. Very cool. (And not just because the video venture was inspired by “Take Back Saturday!“)
Also Saturday: 2009 Tampa Bay Derby winner Musket Man tries something new, starting in the five furlong Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa (4:57 PM). Musket Man, making his second start off a long layoff, has never finished out of the money, but he’s also never raced at less than six furlongs or on turf. [9:50 AM: Just saw this post on PaceAdvantage, in which someone familiar with the connections’ intentions reports Musket Man has breezed over turf once before and that the race is a prep (a prep they expect to win) for the Carter at Aqueduct. DRF shows trainer Derek Ryan with a .38 percentage (out of eight starters) in turf sprints; Musket Man is the 5-2 morning-line favorite.]
Three potential Omnisurface Stars to watch: In the New Orleans Ladies, Zardana — trained by John Shirreffs, shipped in to take Rachel Alexandra’s measure — makes her first start on dirt [in the US]. The 6-year-old mare won the 2009 G2 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood (Cushion Track) and the Swingtime at Santa Anita (turf). Also trying dirt for the first time is Noble’s Promise, who makes his first start of the year in the Rebel Stakes. Noble’s Promise won the G1 Breeders’ Futurity last fall at Keeneland (Polytrack), and broke his maiden over the Ellis Park turf. At Santa Anita, Interactif makes the move to synthetics in the San Felipe Stakes. The Todd Pletcher-trainee won his maiden debut on the Monmouth dirt and boasts two 2009 turf stakes wins, the G3 With Anticipation at Saratoga and G3 Bourbon at Keeneland.
Shake Up
Rachel Alexandra hasn’t previously appeared in my top 10 Kentucky Derby prospects list, but she’s now #1 after winning the Fair Grounds Oaks yesterday with style and ease and in a final time of 1:43.55, barely 1/10 of a second slower than Friesan Fire finished the Louisiana Derby. Surely, she could have met or exceeded that time with little effort, if Calvin Borel had kept to the task instead of showboating through the final sixteenth, gearing the filly down and throwing back exaggerated glances at the trailing competition.
Before Saturday, trainer Hal Wiggins allowed there was a possibility Rachel Alexandra could be a late Triple Crown nominee. As of this morning, though, her connections seem set on their original plan of going to the Kentucky Oaks. “We have too good a filly to risk her future in a 20-horse field of brutal, man, macho colts,” said co-owner Dolphus Morrison (Courier-Journal). Oh, man. I’ll let that quote speak for itself, and hope Morrison et al reconsiders.
Following his facile victory in the Louisiana Derby, Friesan Fire moves from #3 to #2, ahead of Desert Party, while Old Fashioned, formerly #1, sinks to #6. In his New York Times wrap-up today, Joe Drape offers a few excuses for the colt’s second-place finish in the Rebel Stakes:
[The crowd] watched Old Fashioned stagger in the stretch after contesting wickedly fast fractions. He chased Silver City through a rapid half mile in 46.07 and three quarters of a mile in 1.11.67.
Maybe. I’ll wait to see how he does in the Arkansas Derby, but the Rebel reminded me of how Old Fashioned tired in the stretch of the Southwest, which was then marked up to it being his first start of 2009.
The list for 3/17/09 PDI: 1. Rachel Alexandra 2. Friesan Fire 3. Desert Party 4. Pioneerof the Nile 5. I Want Revenge 6. Old Fashioned 7. Quality Road 8. Dunkirk 9. Imperial Council 10. Papa Clem
Hot Derby prospects weren’t the only horses running on Saturday. At Santa Anita, Life Is Sweet won her third straight stakes this year and her first G1 when she scored the Santa Margarita with a determined stretch run:
Not that the rest of the field didn’t know Life Is Sweet was coming: “They were all looking back at me,” said jockey Garrett Gomez. “I was laughing at the three-eighths pole” (ESPN). Impossible to tell he’s doing that in the video, but I can believe it, because the way the filly rolled up on the outside, tough and graceful, looked like a fun ride.
Life is Sweet is a great example of a late-blooming horse, and her handling has been of the patient sort we don’t seem to see much of these days. Although she won her first race as a 2-year-old in her second start at Belmont back in October 2007, Life Is Sweet struggled through her 3-year-old season to do better than second, running against fillies like Proud Spell and Little Belle in races such as the Ashland and Sands Point Stakes. Since returning this January, she’s emerged as trainer John Shirreff’s other distaff star, second only to Zenyatta. Asked if the 4-year-old filly might meet her champion stablemate on the track sometime this year, owner Martin Wygod replied, “Who knows?” Racing fans can wish.
Racing, Briefly
Quick post up at the Alex Brown Racing site this afternoon. This is the time of year when Kentucky Derby preps really begin to mean something, and when it becomes really difficult to find something new to say. Fortunately, Superfecta wrote up an excellent preps preview, to which I could link. I expect to feel more inspired Saturday night, after my PDI top 10, little changed over the past three weeks, is surely shaken up by the day’s stakes results.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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