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Medina Spirit, Baffert’s Santa Anita Derby Stand-In, ‘Went Very Nice’ In Breeze

Medina Spirit, twice runner-up to Life Is Good, worked four furlongs Sunday in 48 seconds flat as the Protonico colt prepares to deputize for his undefeated but sidelined stablemate in Saturday's Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

“He went very nice (under jockey Juan Ochoa),” said Bob Baffert, who is seeking to add to his record of nine Santa Anita Derby victories.

“I also worked Hozier (runner-up to unbeaten stablemate Concert Tour in the March 13 Rebel at Oaklawn Park, five furlongs in 1:00.80), Charlatan (four furlongs in 48 flat) and Gamine (five furlongs in 59.60).”

Life Is Good was favored in the most recent Future Wager to win the May 1 Kentucky Derby before a small chip in his left hind ankle was detected following a workout on March 20, forcing him to miss the race and necessitating surgery by Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., two days ago.

“The surgery went well,” Baffert said. “I received great reports on it. It was minor, so that was good and he should be back (racing) a lot sooner than we thought he would.”

G1 Malibu Stakes winner Charlatan and Eclipse Award champion female sprinter Gamine are scheduled to run at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, Charlatan in the G1 Churchill Downs Stakes and Gamine in the G1 Derby City Distaff, both at seven furlongs.

Trainer John Sadler sent Runhappy Santa Anita Derby candidate Rock Your World five furlongs Sunday morning in a bullet 59.20, fastest of 76 drills at the distance, more than two seconds faster than the average time of 1:01.37.

The Runhappy Santa Anita Derby headlines six stakes on Saturday, four of them graded and two showcasing California-bred or sired runners.

In addition to the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, they are the G22 Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles; the G2 Royal Heroine for fillies and mares 4 and up at one mile on turf; and the G3 Providencia Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Also, two Golden State Series races, the $150,000 Echo Eddie Stakes for 3-year-olds at 6 ½ furlongs and the $150,000 Evening Jewel Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 6 ½ furlongs.

In all, the six stakes offer $1,750,000 in purse money. Entries for Saturday's race will be taken on Wednesday.

Saturday's latest local weather forecasts partly cloudy skies, one percent chance of rain and a high of 78 degrees.

First post time will be 12 noon.

The post Medina Spirit, Baffert’s Santa Anita Derby Stand-In, ‘Went Very Nice’ In Breeze appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Prevalence Has Final Wood Memorial Prep For Walsh: ‘This Will Answer Our Questions’

Godolphin's Prevalence registered his final work before shipping to New York for Saturday's Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, posting a half-mile breeze in 47.60 seconds Sunday at his home base at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.

Trainer Brendan Walsh said he's been pleased with the Medaglia d'Oro colt's training and will see him ship to New York on Wednesday, when the draw for the 100-40-20-10-point Kentucky Derby qualifier at Aqueduct racetrack will occur.

Prevalence, unraced as a juvenile, is 2-for-2, recording a 8 1/2-length debut victory on January 23 at Gulfstream Park and following with a three-length score stretched out to a mile on March 11 at the same track.

“He worked here this morning at Palm Meadows and it went very well and he's flying up there on Wednesday. It looks like he's going into the race in good shape,” Walsh said. “It's another step now, so we'll find out if he can go the two turns as well. This will answer our questions and be a good test for him.”

Walsh said he's optimistic Prevalence can handle the challenge of shipping in for a race for the first time, citing his demeanor and temperament.

“He's a very nice, quiet, easy-going horse and I don't think the travel will affect him at all,” Walsh said. “We'll see how he handles the track. He hits me as a horse who can handle any kind of surface.”

Walsh, who has registered 364 wins and earnings of more than $20 million, said the chance to compete in a prestigious race such as the Wood Memorial is a special one, especially with the 2020 edition not being able to run because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It's fantastic. This is why we're in the game; to be part of these races, and to bring a horse up there who should be a live one, it's very exciting,” Walsh said.

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione, aboard for Prevalence's first two starts, will have the return call in the Wood Memorial.

“It's always good when you can have continuity,” Walsh said. “It all helps. Tyler's a great rider, so we look forward to having him on board.”

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One-Horse Stable Bringing Longshot Market Maven To Wood Memorial

Market Maven will provide Aqueduct's Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino some intrigue as the Pennsylvania homebred will make his first stakes appearance after making his first four career starts at his home base at Parx.

The Super Ninety Nine gelding is the only horse currently in training for owner [and breeder] Gregory Gordon, who has compiled 10 wins, four runner-up efforts and three third-place finishes with 23 starters since sending out his first starter in 2013.

Market Maven has improved his career speed figures in every race, beginning with a 39 Beyer in a sixth-place debut effort in November to a 48 in a runner-up effort on December 22. Making his sophomore debut, Market Maven registered a maiden-breaking one-length score that garnered a 74 number and followed with an 81 for his four-length score against optional claimers going a mile and 70 yards last out on February 23 over a sloppy and sealed track.

Trainer Penny Pearce, who will saddle her first career graded stakes starter, said Market Maven has been training forwardly since, prompting the connections to be ambitious in nominating to Aqueduct's signature race with 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby available to the top-four finishers.

“Every time we take him out there, he gets a bit better every time,” Pearce said. “We really don't know what we have yet. You can't win it if you ain't in it. We're all pretty excited. I don't think anyone is more excited than Gregory; he bred and raised him and he's the only one he has in training. When he came to me about this race, I was a little [surprised]. But we started talking about it and we said, 'why not?' He's a nice horse and has talent.”

The Wood Memorial, which has seen 11 of its winners go on to the win the “Run for the Roses,” will also be an opportunity for jockey Dexter Haddock to compete in a prestigious stake. Haddock, primarily based on the Parx circuit, has been aboard for all four of Market Maven's previous starts, developing a strong rapport that Pearce said she wanted to maintain.

“He's the only jock that's been on him since I got him; Dexter's done all the work with him,” Pearce said. “That gives me a little more confidence because he knows him better than anyone.”

Market Maven has won as the front-runner in his last two starts, though Pearce said he has the skill-set to be versatile.

“I think if he could get up close to the lead or get the lead, [ it would be his preferred trip] he could run it like his last race. But he can come from a little out of it, too, so never know. It all looks good on paper but you go out there and everything changes when you come out of the gate.

“He's good-natured and quiet, so I think he'll be all right,” she added.

Pearce has a ledger of 102-112-123 in 883 career starts since going out on her own in 2012. She said running in a historic New York stakes will be a special event for her family-run operation and a nice reward for both Gordon and Haddock as well.

“Greg just told me let's go have fun and there's no pressure and no stress,” said Pearce. “He said, 'let's go have a day of fun.' This day will be exciting for everyone but especially for him; I'll be happy to see him do good and Dexter. We're a family-run barn here, so we're a team. I have my husband and my children working here and my nephew and his wife are stabled with us. It's a seven-day a week job and we all work hard and these kind of horses don't come around every day.”

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Week in Review: Off-Lasix 3YOs Have Now Won 25% of This Year’s Derby Preps

Besides solidifying his status as a top-tier Triple Crown threat, Saturday's win by Known Agenda (Curlin) in the GI Curlin Florida Derby bolstered the overall case that the phase-out of Lasix in this year's series of GI Kentucky Derby preps seems to be having no adverse effect on performance.

Through 20 races in North America since Jan. 1 that have awarded Derby qualifying points, horses giving up Lasix after receiving it in their prior start have won five of those races. Seven others have finished second, an impressive strike rate that equates to off-Lasix horses running first or second in 60% of those 20 stakes.

The sample–admittedly small, but growing–is comprised of 52 total starters. The winners were Known Agenda in the Florida Derby, Helium (Ironicus) in the GII Tampa Bay Derby, Candy Man Rocket (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GIII Sam F. Davis S., Hush of a Storm (Creative Cause) in the John Battaglia Memorial S., and Capo Kane (Street Sense) in the Jerome S.

It should also be noted with an asterisk that Concert Tour (Street Sense) won the GII San Vicente S. coming off Lasix, but that key Santa Anita prep race does not award Derby qualifying points.

This year will mark the first season in which all three Triple Crown races will be conducted Lasix-free, and the majority of prep stakes for the Derby did not permit Lasix. (In the qualifying races that did permit Lasix, like the Springboard Mile S. back in December, horses could not earn points for their placings if they ran on the drug.)

Known Agenda began his career Lasix-free as a 2-year-old in New York, and he beat highly rated Greatest Honour (Tapit) back in November without the use of any race-day anti-bleeding medication. But his form slipped after that–he ran third, beaten nine lengths, in the GII Remsen S., then was the beaten favorite when fifth in the Davis S. at Tampa.

For a Feb. 26 allowance confidence-builder at Gulfstream, trainer Todd Pletcher added both blinkers and Lasix (which is permitted in non-stakes races for 3-year-olds in Florida). Known Agenda attacked with metronomic precision, then poured it on in deep stretch to win by 11 commanding lengths. The drop in class, the addition of blinkers, and the use of Lasix for the first time all likely contributed to a vastly improved performance. But it was impossible to tease out which of those factors had the most impact.

Conventional handicapping wisdom shaped by decades of Lasix usage in North American racing suggested that coming off of Lasix while stepping up to Grade I company after an allowance win by double-digit lengths the first time on that drug might not be an advantageous angle.

But as we are now seeing, convention might as well get tossed out the window, because these off-Lasix horses as an aggregate don't seem to be suffering marked declines in performance.

Known Agenda improved to a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 94, a leap of 12 points. Four of the other off-Lasix sophomore stakes winners mentioned above also improved their Beyers when foregoing Lasix: Hush of a Storm (+12), Capo Kane (+10), Helium (+9) and Concert Tour (+6). The only off-Lasix winner to decline in terms of Beyers was Candy Man Rocket (-2).

In the interest of fairness, four other Florida Derby starters on Saturday came off Lasix after using it last time out. They ran second, fifth, sixth and ninth. So yes, for some of those horses the negative performance implications of not racing on Lasix might have been more pronounced.

Prior to the entire field not racing on Lasix on Saturday, you have to go all the way back to 2012 to find the last time a Florida Derby entrant didn't race on Lasix (Reveron, beaten just a length at 31-1 odds). Before that only one other horse in the 21st Century ran Lasix-free in the Florida Derby (an off-the-board long shot in 2001).

And we'll wrap up this discussion with a little quiz: Prior to Known Agenda, can you name the last horse to cross the Florida Derby finish wire first while running Lasix-free?

The answer is Lil's Lad in the 1998 edition. He was the only horse in that year's Florida Derby not racing on Lasix, but he got disqualified from the victory for causing interference.

The post Week in Review: Off-Lasix 3YOs Have Now Won 25% of This Year’s Derby Preps appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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