Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
GULFSTREAM
Tropical Park Derby the best of six turf stakes
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $75,000 Tropical Park Derby may not be the richest of the six turf stakes on the 11-race program here Saturday but it is definitely the most intriguing. The 1 1/16-mile race has drawn a full and very strong field of 14 3-year-olds trying to squeeze in one final stakes opportunity against their own kind while also hoping to punch their ticket, perhaps, into the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational in January.
A Thread of Blue is by far the richest and most noteworthy member of the field, having won the inaugural $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational in August for owner Leonard Green and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. But A Thread of Blue wasn’t done any favors at Sunday’s post-position draw, being assigned the outside post in the bulky lineup.
The competition is considerable and includes Grade 3 winners Faraway Kitten and English Bee, along with Temple, Kadar, and Halladay, the first three finishers, respectively, in the Gio Ponti Stakes four weeks earlier at Aqueduct.
Among the local contingent, the versatile Art G Is Back will demand some respect, returning to the grass off a secondplace effort over the main track in the Sunshine Millions Classic Preview last month at Gulfstream Park West. Art G Is Back, who is winless but stakesplaced three times on turf, tuned up for the Tropical Park Derby by working a solid fiveeighths from the half-mile pole in 59.96 seconds here Sunday for trainer Ron Spatz, the final three-eighths of the drill into a strong headwind.
“We had him nominated to the Mr. Prospector [last] weekend but felt it was better to run him a mile and one-sixteenth on turf against 3-year-olds than against Grade 1 horses going seven-eighths on the dirt,” Spatz said. “This is the last 3-year-old race of the year and if he runs well here, we would then consider going to the Sunshine Millions Turf next month.”
Saturday’s stakes action also includes the $100,000 Janus and its filly counterpart, the $100,000 Abundantia, at five furlongs; the $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks going 1 1/16 miles; the $75,000 Via Borghese for older fillies and mares going 1 3/16 miles; and the $100,000 Allen Jerkens carded at a grueling two miles.
Track-record holder Pay Any Price and the Group 1-placed Extravagant Kid are among the main contenders in the Janus, while Girls Know Best returns to defend her title in the Abundantia against a group that includes the red-hot Grade 3 winner Jean Elizabeth.
The undefeated, Clasico de Caribe Invitational winner Letruska makes her turf debut in the Tropical Park Oaks. The Via Borghese has no real standout among the 10 starters and may be the most wide-open race of the day. None of the 10 horses entered in the Allen Jerkens have ever been two miles, although American Tattoo is coming off a third-place finish in the 1 3/4-mile, Grade 2 Marathon on the Friday Breeders’ Cup undercard. He will likely be favored over the locally based, three-turn grass specialist Salute the Colonel.
Pletcher pair come off bench
Todd Pletcher will send out Outshine and Promo Code, two of the key players in Friday’s $48,000 main event to be decided at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track under allowance and optional-claiming conditions.
Outshine, on the Triple Crown trail for a time last winter, has not started since finishing fifth in the Easy Goer Stakes on June 8 at Belmont Park. In his previous start, Outshine finished a very troubled 10th in a roughly run Wood Memorial. A 3–year-old son of Malibu Moon, Outshine won his only start locally, returning from an even longer layoff to prove a popular winner of a first-level optional claimer here in February.
Promo Code is perfect in two starts but is returning from a lengthy vacation of his own, having been idle since winning an entry-level optional-claiming race at 1 1/16 miles here April 25.
The Pletcher pair could face their most serious challenges from J S Bach and the stakesplaced Benefactor.
Sharp win for Nonna Madeline
Pletcher is hoping both Outshine and Promo Code will come back off the bench as well as Nonna Madeline did here last Friday. The graded stakesplaced filly returned from a 14 1/2-month layoff to easily win a first level allowance dash by 5 3/4 lengths going seven furlongs while posting a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 84. Nonna Madeline had not started since finishing a well-beaten fifth in the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park in October 2018.
“It’s been a while, so you’re always concerned coming off a layoff like that,” Pletcher said. “She had a tendency not to get away really cleanly and she stumbled away from there this time but was able to recover quickly enough to put herself in a good spot. She got away with an easy opening quarter for a filly with her type of speed. It worked out great. It was good to see her back.”
Pletcher said he was undecided what would be next for Nonna Madeline, a daughter of Candy Ride owned in partnership by Teresa Viola Racing Stables and St. Elias Stable.
“A stakes could be next,” Pletcher said. “We still have some allowance conditions left, but the way she ran it’s possible we could stretch her out as well.