After teaming up to win last year's Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, Team Valor International and trainer Graham Motion are back on the trail with another potential contender in State of Play, an accomplished performer on turf. But unlike Animal Kingdom, who did not race on dirt until the Derby itself, State of Play will get an early test on America's traditional surface in Saturday's Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Hansen, last year's undefeated champion two-year-old male and winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and Union Rags, who won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and finished second to Hansen in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, have received the high weight assignment of 126 pounds on The Jockey Club's 2011 Experimental Free Handicap, released Thursday by The Jockey Club.
The filly division is headed by last year's champion two-year-old filly and undefeated Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, My Miss Aurelia, at 124 pounds.
Phantom Fury, who has won his past two by a total of nearly 19 lengths, makes his stakes debut in Saturday's $50,000 W.E.B.N. Stakes at Turfway Park.
Reminiscent of champion Hansen's showy performances at Turfway last fall, the gray Phantom Fury has run his rivals off their feet. The Michael Lauer pupil dominated a maiden before romping in an entry-level optional claimer at this same one-mile distance over the Polytrack.
Sunday was Todd Pletcher day at Gulfstream Park as the 2010 Kentucky Derby-winning conditioner unleashed a pair of rapidly rising prospects in El Padrino and Algorithms. Pletcher also sent out Broadway's Alibi, who romped by 16 3/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Forward Gal Stakes for fillies.
Alpha opened his three-year-old season with a 2 1/2-length score in the January 7 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct and will remain on the inner track for Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Withers Stakes, which has been moved up on the calendar and extended to 1 1/16 miles this year. The Kiaran McLaughlin-trained colt tops a field of seven Kentucky Derby hopefuls, including Gulfstream Park Derby third-placer King Kid and multiple New York-bred stakes hero Swag Daddy.
Newly-crowned champion Hansen lost his perfect record in his first start as a three-year-old in Sunday's Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, as Starlight Racing's Algorithms blew by him and went on to romp by five lengths on the sloppy, sealed track. Hansen, who got off to a bad start before rushing to the lead, just managed to save second from the late-running My Adonis.
The Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes wasn't the only contest with potential Kentucky Derby implications at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. Three races earlier, promising three-year-olds lined up in an entry-level optional claimer carded as the 7TH, and the Todd Pletcher-trained El Padrino rolled to a good-looking score over Take Charge Indy.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin wasn't nearly as surprised as the bettors at Aqueduct last November when Consortium swept to victory by nearly five lengths at 13-1 in his debut.
"We expected him to run well. We felt like he was a really nice horse and he was training really well. Alan Garcia rode him great the first time, sat back fifth in the clear and came running to win by five," McLaughlin said.
"He's so well bred. Bernardini is such a great sire. It's nice to have quite a few Bernardinis in the barn."
On a raw, stormy day, Apprehender was like a lightning strike in his debut at Oaklawn Park on Thursday and showed he is a contender for the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes on February 20.
Calling the gelded son of Posse one of the best horses she's ever trained, trainer Ingrid Mason needed to be convinced to race the three-year-old in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden contest because of concerns about a muddy track and the short distance. Consider those concerns dismissed after a 7 1/2-length romp under jockey Inosencio Diego.
Sunday's Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park marks the seasonal debut for Hansen, who secured champion two-year-old male divisional honors and remained unbeaten with a gutsy score in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. The gray son of Tapit tops a short field of six in the one-turn mile race.
Count Fleet Stakes runner-up Stephanoatsee is off the Kentucky Derby trail due an injured pastern bone, trainer Graham Motion said Tuesday.
A half-brother to 2011 Preakness winner and Kentucky Derby fourth-placer Shackleford, Stephanoatsee chipped a piece off the top of the pastern bone in his right foreleg. He will undergo surgery Wednesday at the New Bolton Equine Clinic in Pennsylvania, with Dr. Dean Richardson reattaching the piece rather than removing it.
Just five days after celebrating Havre de Grace's Horse of the Year honors, trainer Larry Jones enjoyed a banner Saturday at Fair Grounds by sweeping both sophomore stakes with Brereton Jones homebreds. Oaks aspirant Believe You Can started the double in the Silverbulletday Stakes, and Mr. Bowling capped Road to the Derby Kickoff Day with a battling win in the Grade 3, $175,000 Lecomte Stakes, raising his profile on the Triple Crown trail.
Wide trips did in several contenders in Monday's $100,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park, but Alex and Joann Lieblong's Junebugred largely avoided that fate with a well-executed ride by Joe Bravo. Tracking in the second tier while saving ground most of the way, the Corinthian colt faced a wall of horses approaching the stretch. Bravo saw the rail open up turning for home, deftly guided his mount to the inside and surged late while holding off a belated charge from 17-1 chance Reckless Jerry.
Trainer Dale Romans has told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Grade 2 Remsen Stakes winner O'Prado Again is off the Triple Crown trail after sustaining a condylar fracture in his right foreleg following a workout at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.
"The horse is fine; it's just bad timing," Romans said. "It was a big blow to our Derby dreams, but it wasn't catastrophic. We'll get him back in one piece, and he'll go on and have a good career."
Romans said surgery will be performed in Ocala, Florida, and that O'Prado Again could resume training in two months.
Darley Stable's homebred Out of Bounds was overlooked at 10-1 in his stakes debut, Saturday's Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, but rallied strongly to win the first graded race of the year on the Kentucky Derby trail, greatly enhancing his credentials in the process. Trained by Eoin Harty, the son of Discreet Cat relished the added ground in his first start around two turns, completing a mile in 1:34 2/5 over the fast track.
Sunday's inaugural $100,000 Gulfstream Park Derby was designed as the new year's first stepping stone to the classics, and if the outcome is any indication, racing fans are in for another wild ride on the Triple Crown trail in 2012. Calder shipper Reveron, an 8-1 chance in his stakes debut, fended off the sustained bid by Nick Zito's well-regarded Casual Trick, while 3-1 favorite Ancient Rome was never involved and beat just one home.
Arnold Zetcher's Liaison may have dropped his initial career outing, but the Bob Baffert pupil has been unbeatable since. On Saturday, just two days following the death of his sire, Indian Charlie, the colt added the Grade 1, $750,000 CashCall Futurity to his resume when holding the furious late rally of Rousing Sermon to score by a neck on the wire.
Gary and Cecil Barber's Stoney Fleece took the lead from rival Handsome Mike at the sixteenth-pole and held on to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Generous Stakes at Hollywood on Sunday by a 1 1/4-length margin. With jockey Joel Rosario aboard, the John Sadler trainee went a mile over the firm turf in 1:34 3/5 to earn his first career stakes victory.
Two years ago, WinStar Farm's Super Saver captured the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs, and the Todd Pletcher trainee went on to glory in the Kentucky Derby the following spring. Those same connections hope that history repeats itself, for on Saturday, WinStar's Gemologist accomplished the first half of that double in the $178,200 Kentucky Jockey Club.
Despite losing their turf star Paddy O'Prado to injury last spring, owner Donegal Racing and trainer Dale Romans will have much to look forward to next year as they now have a contender for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby with a similarly-named gray colt named O'Prado Again, also by the late sire El Prado. The move into the ranks of classic contenders came in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Remsen Stakes, which O'Prado Again prevailed in by three parts of a length after racing wide much of the way.
