Eoin Harty has had high expectations for his Godolphin-owned homebred colt Groveland since he began training him before his first career start last fall at Gulfstream.
“He has always acted like he was a little bit special,” Harty said of the son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense. “He has all the qualities you look for in a nice horse, and he has a wonderful disposition, which is probably his main strength.”
For all of his strong points, though, Groveland showed Harty a new aspect of his developing game in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11: a determination to overcome adversity in his desire to win.
After getting shut off by pace-setter Zydeceaux just as he was launching a major move at the three-eighths pole, forcing jockey Daniel Centeno to hit the brakes, Groveland re-rallied to throw a scare into the eventual winner, Litigate, and rider Luis Saez.
Although unable to run down Litigate, Groveland was an impressive second at odds of 21-1, a length-and-a-half ahead of Classic Car Wash.
“If you had told me at the top of the stretch he'd be fourth, I would have been happy. If you had told me he would hit the board, I'd have been ecstatic. And if you told me he'd be second, I'd be delighted,” Harty said Friday morning from Santa Anita in California. “I went through a whole range of emotions in the last three-eighths of a mile.”
Harty is preparing Groveland – and himself – for another trip on the emotional roller coaster of big-time racing in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 11. The mile-and-a-sixteenth main track contest is a 100-point “Road to the Kentucky Derby” race, with the winner receiving 50 points toward a guaranteed spot in the Run for the Roses starting gate on May 6 at Churchill Downs.
The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is part of a $1-million Festival Day 43 stakes bonanza which includes the Grade 2, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes on the turf; the Grade 3, $200,000 Florida Oaks on the turf; the Grade 3, $100,000 Challenger on the main track; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes on the turf.
While the makeup of the field for the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is largely unknown, trainer Todd Pletcher has indicated he is pointing Litigate to the G2 Louisiana Derby on March 25 at Fair Grounds.
Groveland, who has made four of his five starts at Tampa Bay Downs, breezed five furlongs Tuesday in 1:01 4/5 with Centeno aboard.
“I let him gallop out a good three-quarters (of a mile), because I want to make sure he is plenty fit for next Saturday,” said Harty, who is planning one more work next week. “He won't be short of work if he gets beat.”
Harty credits exercise rider Jeanna Nicosia for playing a big role in Groveland's development.
“She gallops him and is a real key to my success overall,” he said.
While laden with promise and a pedigree to match (he's out of a Medaglia d'Oro mare, Lucknow), Groveland still has only one victory from five starts, with two seconds and two thirds.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men can go out the window when the gate opens,” Harty said.
Now, 16 years have passed since Street Sense used a victory in the Tampa Bay Derby as a springboard to his slice of racing immortality in Louisville. Harty – who trained Street Sense's sire Street Cry as a 2-year-old when the future Dubai World Cup winner finished third in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile – senses the pieces coming together for a trip to Churchill Downs in May.
“The fact that he is a nice horse is not a surprise to anyone who knows the family,” said Harty, who started three horses in the Kentucky Derby from 2008-2010 and was an assistant to Bob Baffert for victories by Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998. “If we are fortunate enough to get to the Kentucky Derby with this horse, I won't have any reservations about him getting the (mile-and-a-quarter) distance.”
The post ‘He Has Always Acted Like He Was A Little Bit Special’: Harty Excited About Tampa Bay Derby Hopeful Groveland appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
