For T D Dance, the best is yet to come.
At least that's what reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox is hoping for the son of Can the Man, who is owned by Madaket Stables LLC, Wonder Stable, Paul Farr and Team Hanley.
T D Dance will look to improve his record to three wins in four starts on grass when he runs in Saturday's $100,000 James W. Murphy, a one-mile race on the turf at Pimlico Race Course on Preakness day in Baltimore, Md. Eight 3-year-olds are entered in the race and T D Dance will start from outside Post 8.
All runners will carry 120 pounds.
The race was first run in 1966 as the Woodlawn Handicap then as the Woodlawn Stakes from 1967 in honor of the Woodlawn Vase, the trophy presented to the winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1). It was renamed in 2010 for the late trainer James W. Murphy, who was a stalwart in Maryland racing.
T D Dance is coming off a win as the favorite in an allowance March 21 at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, winning the 1 1/16-mile race by 1 ¾ lengths.
“I'm looking forward to giving him an opportunity in a stakes,” Cox said.
Two starts ago, T D Dance had his first try in a stakes race, but it didn't go well. He finished fifth out of eight in the $75,000 Black Gold Stakes, also at 1 1/16 miles. T D Dance did have some trouble at the start when he was bumped after the break.
Cox had reason for optimism in the next start, albeit against lesser company.
“Two races back, he didn't perform quite as well as we were hoping,” Cox said. “He was able to rebound and come back and win the allowance race.”
In the James Murphy, T D Dance will be ridden by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano. He will be the fifth rider in as many starts for the colt.
T D Dance began his career as a 2-year-old at Indiana Grand, breaking his maiden with a two-length win going a mile on the grass last Oct. 6. He followed that with a neck loss Dec. 4 at Fair Grounds in a race that was run at a mile and taken off the grass.
Competition will come from the Wesley Ward-trained Outadore, who is owned by Breeze Easy, LLC and will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. Outadore has won two of three starts on the grass. The last time he ran, March 27, he won at Turfway Park in a race that went 6 ½ furlongs on its all-weather surface.
Also entered in the James Murphy are Indian Lake, making his first career start on the grass; Kasim, who has two wins and two seconds in six starts on turf; Pimlico-based Reassured, also making his turf debut; Extrasexybigdaddee, fourth in his first start on grass, the April 17 Woodhaven at Aqueduct, and Mike Trombetta-trained stablemate Arzak; and Charles Chrome, a son of Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) winner and two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome (2014, 2016) making his 2021 debut.
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