Trainer Ken McPeek told the Daily Racing Form on Monday that he plans to send Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll to New Orleans, La., for the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 26.
The 3-year-old son of Connect ran sixth in the first start of his sophomore season, the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 5. McPeek isn't concerned about the three-week turnaround, since Rattle N Roll “ran back in 16 days when he won the Breeders' Futurity (G1 at Keeneland).”
Beaten 7 1/4 lengths in the Fountain of Youth, Rattle N Roll saved ground but failed to factor late. McPeek believes the Gulfstream surface failed to play to the colt's late-running style, and that he may have been a bit short coming into the race.
“He did need it,” McPeek told DRF. “I'd say the main reason we're sending him to New Orleans is because the race is 1 3/16 miles. He'll like the extra ground.”
Out of the winning Johannesburg mare Jazz Tune from the family of Grade 1 winners Another Review and No Review, Rattle N Roll was a $55,000 weanling at the Keeneland November sale. He returned the next fall to command a final bid of $210,000 from McPeek on behalf of Lucky Seven Stable.
Rattle N Roll owns two wins from five starts with earnings of $383,460.
Read more at the Daily Racing Form.
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