road to the kentucky derby | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Mild Sprain’ Pulls Senor Buscador Off Kentucky Derby Trail

Remington Springboard Mile winner Senor Buscador is no longer on the Kentucky Derby trail. The 3-year-old son of Mineshaft came out of a Friday breeze at Sam Houston with a “mild sprain” in his suspensory ligament, trainer Todd Fincher told horseracing.net.

“We are just doing what is best for the horse long term, because we could run him, but it would be risky,” Fincher said. “We need to stop him and give him time off because he such a good horse and has a bright future.”

Senor Buscador is a homebred for Joe Peacock, Jr. out of the top New Mexico-bred mare Rose's Desert, making him a half-brother to G3 winner Runaway Ghost. The colt broke his maiden at Remington Park on Nov. 6, circling the field with a big late run to win the 5 1/2-furlong sprint by 2 1 1/2 lengths. He immediately stepped up to win the Springboard Mile in similar fashion on Dec. 18, romping by 5 3/4 lengths.

Next out, Fincher sent Senor Buscador to the Fair Grounds for the G2 Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 13, but the colt could only manage fifth on the day. He had been targeting the G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn in two weeks' time, but will now be given time away from the races.

‘Maturing’ Capo Kane Cuts Back To One-Turn Mile For Gotham

Bing Cherry Racing and Leonard Liberto's Capo Kane, a pace-setting third last out in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Withers, turns back to a one-turn mile in Saturday's Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct.

Trainer Harold Wyner put Capo Kane through a smart training session on Feb. 26 at Parx with the California-bred working behind a pair of horses before circling his company and completing the five-eighths breeze in 1:00.21.

“He worked real well. We had two horses set off in front of him and he sat behind them and got the dirt in his face and passed them. He finished off his work real strong,” said Wyner. “I know there's going to be a lot of speed in the Gotham and I don't think he needs to be on the lead.”

Wyner said Capo Kane, who has demonstrated a tendency to drift out during the stretch run, completed his work straight as an arrow.

“In his work the other day, he didn't drift out one little bit,” said Wyner. “He stayed right where he should be and went around the horses nicely and didn't drift at all. He's maturing. He's a lot bigger and wider now.”

The Street Sense colt picked up 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points on New Year's Day when taking the one-mile Jerome. He added two additional qualifying points for his Withers effort and currently sits in 11th position in the standings with 12 points.

Wyner said the connections will consider a start in the Kentucky Derby if the $26,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds-In Training sale purchase posts a strong effort on Saturday with 50-20-10-5 qualifying points on the line.

“I still think this horse will get the mile and an eighth and the mile and a quarter,” said Wyner. “If he runs real well in the Gotham, I'm almost forced to try him in the Wood Memorial going a mile and an eighth [on April 6] to see if he'll get the distance because if he doesn't there won't be any point going to the Derby. The timing is close so we'll have to see how he runs in the Gotham and go from there.”

Capo Kane ran second on debut in October at Parx going seven furlongs and capped his juvenile year with a maiden-breaking 4 1/2-length score on Nov. 25 at the same track stretched out to a mile and 70 yards.

Capo Kane won his first stakes start – and sophomore bow – in gate-to-wire fashion, besting a five-horse Jerome field by 6 1/4 lengths, garnering a personal-best 84 Beyer.

Wyner said Capo Kane will ship to New York on the day of the race with jockey Dylan Davis to retain the mount.

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O’Neill Believes Distance Should Help Wipe The Slate In Saturday’s Gotham

Navigating the competitive Kentucky Derby trail will force any 3-year-old to eventually branch beyond an established comfort zone, as steeper competition, expanded race distances and more extensive travel becomes necessary as the first Saturday in May approaches.

Reddam Racing's Wipe the Slate will look to embrace those challenges, shipping across the country from his base at Santa Anita in California to compete in Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The one-turn mile will offer 50-20-10-5 Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers and will mark Wipe the Slate's first race outside of the Golden State. The Doug O'Neill trainee ran second in his debut going 6 1/2 furlongs on Nov. 22 at Del Mar before breaking his maiden with an impressive 3 ¼-length score in a seven-furlong sprint on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita to cap his juvenile campaign.

Making his sophomore – and graded stakes debut – Wipe the Slate was stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for his first career route. After bumping a rival, he underwent a wide trip before tiring late, finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis on Jan. 30 at Santa Anita.

Wipe the Slate has continued to train forwardly since that effort, including a six-furlong work in 1:11.60 on Saturday over the Santa Anita main track. A son of Nyquist, O'Neill's 2016 Kentucky Derby winner, Wipe the Slate will look to benefit from a five-week gap between starts. O'Neill said he expects the Kentucky-bred to handle shipping to the Empire State with aplomb and likes how cutting back to a mile could play to his strength.

“He's always been an impressive colt,” said O'Neill. “I think he'll travel well and I love the one-turn mile for him. We're excited for days ahead.”

O'Neill said Kendrick Carmouche, the current Aqueduct winter meet-leading rider, will pick up the mount for the Gotham.

The Gotham, which will have its 69th running this coming weekend, has historical strong connections to the “Run for the Roses,” with Secretariat winning it in 1973, tying the track record in an effort that helped propel him to one of the most famous Triple Crown runs in the sport's history. Other highlights include Easy Goer setting a track record in the 1989 edition, setting a mark of 1:32.40 that still stands.

While both Secretariat and Easy Goer are Hall of Famers, O'Neill has the potential to join them among the inductees, as the veteran conditioner was named one of 11 finalists for the 2021 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame class on Wednesday.

O'Neill, primarily based in California, is one of three trainers among the finalists, along with NYRA mainstays Todd Pletcher and Christophe Clement. The 52-year-old O'Neill is a two-time Derby winner in tandem with Reddam Racing, saddling I'll Have Another [who also won the Preakness] in 2012 and following four years later with Nyquist, who ran third in the 2016 Preakness.

O'Neill, who trained his first winner in 1989, has five Breeders' Cup victories to his credit, bolstering a strong resume that features more than 2,500 career wins, including 132 graded stakes. Among his other notable winners was Hall of Famer Lava Man, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup three times and twice both the Santa Anita Handicap and Pacific Classic. Five of his horses have won Eclipse Awards. In addition to his dozens of stakes victories in this country, O'Neill has also tallied international victories in the Godolphin Mile and Japan Cup Dirt.

“The Hall of Fame nomination is a result of working alongside a bunch of amazing horsemen and amazing owners and, of course, amazing horses,” said O'Neill.

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Candy Man Rocket ‘Smooth As Silk’ In Final Prep For Tampa Bay Derby

Candy Man Rocket, who burst onto the scene as a legitimate Triple Crown candidate by winning the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Feb. 6, and Grade 3 2-year-old winner Sittin On Go are expected to head a large field in Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

The 41st annual Tampa Bay Downs showcase is one of five stakes races scheduled on the Festival Day 41 Presented by Lambholm South card. The mile-and-a-sixteenth race for 3-year-olds on the main dirt track is a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race, with the top four finishers earning 50, 20, 10 and 5 points toward qualifying for a spot in the Run for the Roses starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 1.

As is always the case this time of year, the majority of attention will shift to the 3-year-old Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve hopefuls.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott – who won the 2019 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with Tacitus and that year's Kentucky Derby with Country House, with Tacitus finishing third – sent Candy Man Rocket out for a 4-furlong breeze Sunday at his Payson Park Training Center base in Indiantown, Fla., where the Frank Fletcher Racing Operations-owned colt turned in a time of 48 3/5 seconds, the best of 36 workouts at the half-mile distance.

“He was on his own, he went well and I'm very pleased with him. He looked as smooth as silk,” Mott said via telephone. “He is a good work horse anyway, but I liked the way he did it. The (Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby) has been on our minds since he won the Sam F. Davis. Any time you get a horse that runs well over that racetrack, you have to give it consideration.”

While Kentucky Derby qualifying points can be very crucial, Mott knows the important thing at this stage is to continue to build on the colt's foundation for a possible try at a mile-and-a-quarter at Churchill Downs.

“It seems like he is doing equally as well now as he was before the Davis,” Mott said. “He's got good natural speed away from the gate, which can always be an advantage for any horse, position-wise. The chances of getting a good trip might be better than they would for a deep closer, especially in a big field.”

Junior Alvarado will again come up from Gulfstream Park to ride Candy Man Rocket.

Mott said the owner, Frank Fletcher, is excited about Candy Man Rocket's chances to be the first horse to complete the Sam F. Davis-Tampa Bay Derby double since Destin in 2016.

“He is someone who is enthusiastic about his horses, loves the game and is happy just to have a horse in a race like this,” Mott said.

The trainer said he is still debating the next start for his Sam F. Davis runner-up, breeder-owner Michael Shanley's Nova Rags, who won the Pasco Stakes here on Jan. 16. Mott said the March 13 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, the March 20 TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and the March 27 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa are all under consideration.

Sittin On Go, who won the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes last September at Churchill Downs, is expected to make his first start since a sixth-place finish on Jan. 30 in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Albaugh Family Stables-owned colt is trained by Dale Romans.

Also expected to compete in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby are the third and fourth-place finishers in the Sam F. Davis, Hidden Stash and the gelding Boca Boy. Hidden Stash is owned by BBN Racing and trained by Victoria Oliver and Boca Boy is owned by Kenneth E. Fishbein and trained by Cheryl Winebaugh.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby a record five times, including three in a row from 2015-2017, is expected to return with Woodford Thoroughbreds and WinStar Farm's Promise Keeper. The colt broke his maiden on Feb. 6 at Gulfstream in his second start, winning a mile maiden special weight race by 5 lengths on a sloppy track.

Pletcher is also expected to enter Whisper Hill Farm's Unbridled Honor, who broke his maiden here on the Sam F. Davis undercard going a mile-and-40 yards.

King of Dreams, who broke his maiden at Gulfstream on Jan. 30, is expected to start for owner Victoria's Ranch and trainer Juan Carlos Avila, the same connections who won last year's Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with 49-1 shot King Guillermo. Victoria's Ranch is the stable name for retired major league slugger Victor Martinez.

Mark Casse, who sent out Prospective to win the 2012 Tampa Bay Derby, is expected to enter D. J. Stable's Helium. The colt was 2-for-2 as a 2-year-old, winning the 7-furlong Display Stakes on Oct. 18 on the all-weather synthetic Tapeta track at Woodbine in Toronto.

Other likely Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby entrants include trainer Shawn H. Davis's Hello Hot Rod, a winner of three of four lifetime starts, including the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Jan. 31 at Aqueduct; Moonlite Strike, trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.'s colt who is 2-for-4; Joseph's Super Strong, whose lone start on Dec. 19 at Camarero resulted in a victory in the Grade 1 Classico Agustin Mercado Revron Stakes; and My Liberty, a maiden winner from the barn of Maria Ines Mejia.

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