Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
So Alive a threat to Knicks Go
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Knicks Go surely will be favored Saturday when the Sam F. Davis Stakes is renewed at Tampa Bay Downs, but one of the more compelling reasons to fade the speedy gray colt is this: Todd has one in there against him.
So Alive, a winner in two of three career starts, all for trainer Todd Pletcher, will be making his stakes debut as one of the chief threats to Knicks Go in the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam Davis. The 39th running of the Sam Davis is the lone qualifying points race (10-4-2-1) toward the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
Owned by Robert LaPenta, So Alive will be looking to extend Pletcher’s dominance in this 1 1/16-mile prep toward the March 9 Tampa Bay Derby. Pletcher has won the Tampa Bay Derby a record five times, but he has done himself one better in the Davis, having sent out the winner in six of the last 13 runnings.
So Alive made an eye-catching stretch run to win his career debut in a six-furlong race on closing day of the Keeneland fall meet before failing to factor in a Nov. 24 allowance race at Churchill Downs. The Super Saver colt then rebounded with a first-level allowance victory at a mile and 40 yards here in early January after being shipped from Pletcher’s winter base at Palm Beach Downs near Delray Beach, Fla.
“We feel he’s still a work in progress,” said Pletcher, a future Hall of Famer with two Kentucky Derby wins. “He should appreciate the added distance as well.”
Javier Castellano has the call on So Alive for Pletcher, whose Davis winners were Bluegrass Cat (2006), Any Given Saturday (2007), Rule (2010), Brethren (2011), Vinceremos (2014), and Destin (2016).
About 10 3-year-olds are expected for the Davis, one of four stakes on a terrific Festival Preview card. The others are the $150,000 Suncoast, a 3-yearold filly race with Kentucky Oaks qualifying points (10-4-21), and the Tampa Bay Stakes for older horses and the Endeavour for fillies and mares. Both those turf races are Grade 3, $175,000 races at 1 1/16 miles.
Knicks Go, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and the runner-up behind divisional champion Game Winner in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 3, completed his main preparation for the Davis when breezing a half-mile here Saturday in 48 seconds.
“Everything has gone as well as you’d hope since he got a little time off,” said Ben Colebrook, trainer of Knicks Go.
Besides So Alive, other notable challengers to Knicks Go include Trophy Chaser, Well Defined, and Five Star General, with Jose Ortiz riding for some of the ownership partners who campaigned Justify.
Purse values for all four stakes include potential bonuses for registered Floridabreds. The Davis is billed as a $250,000 race, but $50,000 of that is in bonuses.
Heart to Heart on undercard
Easily the most accomplished runner on the Saturday undercard is Heart to Heart, a twotime Grade 1 winner with earnings of more than $2 million. The 8-year-old horse will be ridden by Julien Leparoux in his 40th career start and faces the likes of Divisidero, Inspector Lynley, Irish Strait, and Qurbaan in an excellent 33rd running of the Tampa Bay.
“Hopefully, he will get away well this time,” said Leparoux, acknowledging how Heart to Heart has occasionally lost because of a tardy break, including in his last race, the Jan. 12 Tropical Turf at Gulfstream Park. “It’s nothing I do or the gate crew does. It’s just him.”
The Endeavour favorite will be Rymska, with Ortiz riding for Chad Brown, while the mile and 40-yard Suncoast looks wide open, with a field of at least eight. Among the fillies missing from the Suncoast is Molto Bella, who won the seven-furlong Gasparilla by 6 1/2 lengths here Jan. 19 but will make her next start in the Feb. 16 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds.
Blue Prize gearing up
Trainer Ignacio Correas said he is considering the April 14 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park for Blue Prize, who has assumed a regular breeze schedule at Tampa after a brief respite following her breakthrough 2018 season.
“Maybe a race before then,” said Correas. “She is doing great.”
Correas said the turf standout Dona Bruja, 7, is “50-50” to return to racing later this year, and that new additions to his Tampa string include a Brazilian champion, Halston, and the privately purchased Reride.
◗ Antonio Gallardo, the leading jockey at four of the last five Tampa meets, was back riding here Wednesday after taking off following a spill in the seventh race Sunday aboard Lodestar, who had to be euthanized after breaking down in midstretch. Gallardo escaped with a deep bruise to his left leg.
◗ Imperial Hint is among 25 older horses nominated to the Feb. 16 Pelican Stakes, a sixfurlong race that trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. is using as a prep toward the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 30. Imperial Hint, a winner in 12 of 19 starts, was scheduled to have his final breeze for the Pelican sometime this week.