Contenders

Mark Shuman

Shuman was born July 3, 1970 in Akron, Ohio. He grew up around horses with his father Joe, a trainer on the Ohio racing circuit. A graduate of Miami, Ohio University, he worked in exercise physiology for a couple of years before returning to the racetrack. He then spent eight years on the New York circuit as an assistant to Tom Skiffington, Howard Tesher and H. James Bond, eventually getting his trainer's license in 2000. Led the Gulfstream meet in 2003 with 87 winners, an all-time record for the southern Florida track. He also won Monmouth Park's trainer's title the same year. He was a private trainer for controversial owner Mike Gill for several years. He will be saddling his first Derby starter.

TBA

Circle Z Stables

Oscar Martinez (FL)

Xchanger hails from the second crop of Florida's 2006 leading freshman stallion Exchange Rate. A son of the great Danzig out of the graded stakes-winning Seeking the Gold mare Sterling Pound, Exchange Rate was born with a stallion's pedigree and turned out to be a very useful horse on the racetrack. He was on the Triple Crown trail for a while in 2000 after capturing the Risen Star Stakes, and at four he displayed versatility by turning back to capture the Gr. II Tom Fool against some of the best sprinters in North America after placing in the Gr. II Kilroe Mile on the turf earlier in the season. Exchange Rate has also sired stakes winners Swap Fliparoo, who took the Test (GI); Ermine, recent winner of the Apple Blossom (GII) and runner-up in the 2006 Kentucky Oaks (GI); and Blazing Rate, who was on the 2006 Derby trail.

Xchanger’s dam Saragoza didn’t have a successful racing career, winning 1 of 16 starts, but all three of her foals are winners. Her dam, Luna Pier, won over $900K in Venezuela, taking multiple Group One events on the turf in her native country. Besides Saragoza, Luna Pier has produced five winners, including the stakes placed pair of Luna Craft and Rush Dancer. Further back on his tail-female line, Xchanger comes from British descent, which would lean towards turf breeding.

Xchanger is inbred 4x3 to the great Mr. Prospector, noted for his sprinters but also the sire of 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus. It is probably too early in the stallion career of Exchange Rate to say what type of horse he predominately gets, but he was not at his best at the Derby distance, where he was 12^th to the aforementioned Fusaichi Pegasus. Dosage Index: 3.00 – by Mark Hoard

Coming Derby Week