Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Signalman going to Blue Grass
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Some people might have been troubled by Signalman’s seventh-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, but his trainer, Ken McPeek, wasn’t one of them.
McPeek couldn’t have been more upbeat or confident in his Grade 2-winning Kentucky Derby hopeful when looking back on the effort the following day.
“He had several excuses for his performance and obviously this race was not our main goal, the Derby is,” said McPeek. “First off, I think I undercooked him for the race. I’ll take that bullet. His first half-mile breeze here was too fast, it jammed him up a little bit, so I had to back off on him. He also lost a shoe somewhere in the race and didn’t scope perfectly clean afterwards. He kind of reminds me of Eskimo Kisses a little bit. She got beat eight lengths and ran fourth in her prep for the Alabama last summer, then came back and ran a powerful race to win the big one.”
McPeek said the Blue Grass on April 6 at Keeneland will be next on the agenda for Signalman.
“He’s a big, strong horse and he put on a lot of weight after his last race at 2,” said McPeek. “I need to tighten him up, but I have plenty of time to do that. With a race under his belt and all those other things, I think there is 10 lengths of improvement in him.”
McPeek may also have another Triple Crown contender on his hands after Lemniscate won his maiden in both his turf and two-turn debut here Sunday.
“I entered him for a Floridabred race at seven furlongs for Saturday, it didn’t go, there wasn’t going to be anything else for a while, and I had a loaded gun with nothing to do with him,” said McPeek. “So I called the owner and said ‘It might sound crazy, but I’m going to go ahead and run him a mile and one-sixteenth on the turf.’ And I told her I think he’ll win. I stuck my neck out, and for once, I was right.”
McPeek said he’s considering putting Lemniscate back on the dirt for his next start, which could come at Oaklawn Park in the Arkansas Derby.
Global Campaign injured
Global Campaign also had a big excuse for his fifth-place finish under Luis Saez in the Fountain of Youth, although unlike Signalman his Derby dreams are over.
“He grabbed a quarter, on the meaty part above the coronet band and ripped it back, and it’s going to take some time to heal up,” said trainer Stanley Hough. “Luis said he wasn’t even sure where it happened. Best-case scenario he’s going to be out of training a couple of weeks, so he’ll have to miss the rest of these type of races. But I look at it as maybe a blessing in disguise because now he’ll get some time off, and by summer time I think he’ll really show himself and be the guy.”
Saturday wasn’t a total loss for Hough, who earlier in the card sent out Recruiting Ready to register a 3 1/4-length victory over Quijote in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint while showing a new dimension.
“Sometimes it seems like he has to have it his way on the lead, but on Saturday he was forced to check, come back out, and circle from off the pace to win,” said Hough. “We’ve been working with him in the morning, breezing him some slow three-quarters, trying to get him to relax, and I think he’s really been responding to that. It wasn’t the best field in the world, but he did beat a pretty good horse. I was very proud of the way he was able to fight him off and finish like he did.”
Jaywalk in good shape
Trainer John Servis reported all was well with his Eclipse Award winner Jaywalk in the wake of her fourth place finish as the 1-5 favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2 Davona Dale.
“All’s good. She ate good, she’s acting good, her legs look good,” Servis said after training hours Sunday morning.
Jaywalk rated just off the early pace of Cookie Dough but came up empty when called upon by jockey Joel Rosario on the final turn. She was beaten just less than six lengths by upset winner Jeltrin while making her first start since her easy victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies three months earlier.
“Hindsight being 20-20, maybe we should have put her on the lead and see how she handled it from there,” said Servis. “I sure thought she was a whole lot fitter than the way she ran.”
Servis said if all goes well, he’ll stick to his original plan of running Jaywalk next in either the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks here on March 30 or a week later in the Ashland at Keeneland as a prep for her first major goal of the season, the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
Irad Ortiz to serve suspension
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr was handed a five-day suspension by the stewards for his ride aboard Trapped at Sea in Friday’s ninth event and will serve those days from March 13-17, according to agent Jay Rushing.
“He just wants to take the days now and put them behind him,” said Rushing, who said Ortiz will have to forfeit a call he had in the Inside Information Stakes here March 16.
Ortiz opened a commanding advantage in the standings over Luis Saez while Saez was serving two consecutive fiveday suspensions of his own last month. Saez has regained his top form since returning to action, winning three stakes on Saturday’s card and three more races the following day.