Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Well Defined feeling just fine
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Kathleen O’Connell has been fighting a nasty cold for about a month now, but as she would readily tell you, it’s better her than one of her horses. As one of many signs of her devotion to her stable, O’Connell has refused to skip a morning or two at either of her winter bases, Gulfstream Park West or Tampa Bay Downs, despite feeling downright miserable.
“No,” she said Wednesday between sets at Tampa, where on Saturday she will saddle Well Defined as a major contender in the track’s annual showcase event, the Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
Well Defined has trained at Gulfstream West since going wire to wire in the Sam F. Davis on Feb. 9. Having given the Stonehedge homebred just one work in the interim, a fivefurlong breeze in 1:02 on Feb. 22, O’Connell has focused on staying power.
He’s two-minute licked a few times since the Davis, O’Connell said.
“He’s got plenty of speed,” she said. “I’m not one to hang him on the fence and breeze him anyway.”
Entries for the 39th Tampa Bay Derby were to be released Wednesday afternoon, with a field of 11 3-year-olds expected. Handicappers surely will find themselves trying to envision how hot the pace might be for the 1 1/16-mile race. Well Defined and likely race favorite Win Win Win both have flashed exceptional speed in prior starts, while Zenden also is quick-footed.
Well Defined, O’Connell insists, “doesn’t have to be in front, I don’t think.”
“Time will tell,” she said. “He’s just kind of a free-running horse. He likes to be forwardly placed.”
The Tampa Bay Derby offers 85 qualifying points (50-20-105) toward the May 4 Kentucky Derby. It’s the focal point of a 12-race Festival Day card that will include four other stakes.
Meanwhile, a few barns over from O’Connell, Dream Maker, a John Oxley homebred, was settling in under the Barn 10 shed row following a van ride from New Orleans in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Kim Carroll is overseeing Dream Maker and Flameaway, who runs Saturday in the Challenger Stakes, before trainer Mark Casse arrives from Ocala. Fla., later in the week.
“Everything went perfect” with the ship, Carroll said.
Dream Maker, an 8 1/2-length winner of a Fair Grounds allowance on Feb. 9 in his only start this year, would stand to benefit from ruinous fractions, having already developed an effective off-pace style. Dream Maker was the beaten favorite last fall in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.
“He’s a horse that we’ve liked from the beginning,” said Casse, who already has War of Will as a major Kentucky Derby contender, earlier this week by phone. “I told Mr. Oxley, ‘We might have another Classic Empire here,’ ” referring to their 2016 champion 2-year-old.
“He’s had a few little bumps along the way, but maybe the time was a blessing,” Casse said.
Casse said he originally thought Dream Maker didn’t beat a lot in his last race, but reconsidered after seeing the runner-up, Courtyard, come back to win an allowance.
Casse has a second starter for the Tampa Bay Derby in Sir Winston, fourth at 33-1 in the Withers at Aqueduct in his first start since winning the Display in December over the Woodbine synthetic.
Other confirmed starters for the Tampa Bay Derby are Admire, Dunph, Lord Dragon, Outshine, Tacitus, and The Right Path.
One defection from the expected lineup was Current, whose trainer, Todd Pletcher, still will be represented by Outshine as he bids to extend his record for most wins, five, in the Tampa Bay Derby. Current has raced primarily on turf, although “we are still intrigued” with running him again on dirt, said Aron Wellman, founder of the colt’s co-owners, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.
Dunph was supplemented at a cost of $7,500 by owners Three Diamonds Farm and Joe Besecker.
The Saturday supporting stakes are the $225,000 Hillsborough, the $200,000 Florida Oaks, the $100,000 Challenger, and the $75,000 Columbia.
Listed purses for the three richest stakes of the day include bonuses restricted to registered Florida-breds.
The Saturday forecast calls for a high of 82. The race will be televised live by both Fox Sports 2 and TVG.
◗ The standout sprinter Imperial Hint had his first breeze since his third-place finish in the Feb. 16 Pelican Stakes, going a half-mile here Tuesday in 47.80 seconds.
Trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said Imperial Hint has recovered from the minor foot bruise that apparently led to the 6-yearold gelding’s subpar last effort, with the March 30 Dubai Golden Shaheen remaining as the next target.
◗ A modest nine-race card with nothing but maiden or claiming races is on tap here Friday, with first post set for 12:45 p.m. Eastern. All four scheduled turf races were forced to the main track here Wednesday because of rain the previous day, but dry conditions were forecast through the weekend.