Santa Anita offers dream matchup
The Kentucky Derby watch now moves to its "California Dreamin' " stage, otherwise known as the Grade I Santa Anita Derby, which along with the Wood Memorial in New York and the Illinois Derby in Chicago are the three prime Derby prep races.
Give us a few minutes, please, to appreciate Big Brown's win in last Saturday's Florida Derby. Any doubts about his status as a contender disappeared, so much so that Big Brown was named the Future Book favorite in the third and final stage of pre-Derby wagering this week.
Truth be told, Big Brown, Pyro, and War Pass all look like legitimate Derby contenders. But what about the California connection?
We will find out tomorrow when Colonial John and El Gato Malo compete at Santa Anita. Colonial John has the small edge going in by virtue of his half-length victory over El Gato Malo in the Sham Stakes, but that was a month ago. And the Santa Anita Derby could very well end up a match race since Georgie Boy, who won the San Felipe Stakes March 15 and was regarded as a Derby contender, won't run because of a pulled back muscle.
The first meeting between Colonial John and El Gato Malo was a duel down the stretch, with Colonial John holding off a final surge from El Gato Malo, who was defeated for the first time.
What has changed in the last month to make El Gato Malo's handlers think he can reverse the result? More experience and a new strategy in which El Gato Malo makes an earlier move. In the Sham, El Gato Malo was caught in traffic and had to wait for an opening, which came too late.
In tomorrow's Illinois Derby, Denis of Cork, who has run only three times and not since Feb. 18, will shake off some rust and show what he can do. Denis of Cork first gained fame with a solid 2 1/4-length win in the Grade III Southwest Stakes, which seemed even more impressive when two of the horses he beat later raced to victory. (Sierra Sunset, who finished second in the Southwest, won the Grade II Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, and Liberty Bull, who finished third in the Southwest, won the WinStar Derby at Sunland Park.)
Denis of Cork was going to run in the Rebel against Sierra Sunset, but his connections decided to wait for another prep, giving him more time to recover.
"He's put together a great, forward-moving pattern racing every six or so weeks, and so rather than squeeze an extra race in there and have him come back on short rest for the Derby, our thoughts were that he might do better staying closer to the pattern that is working so well right now," said Mark Reid, the racing manager for Denis of Cork's owners, William and Suzanne Warren. "We've just found over the years that with too much [racing] they're barely there for the Derby, and then they're soon looking for exits. We're trying to be at our peak for the Derby, while also having something left for the rest of the year."
Tomorrow's Wood Memorial at Aqueduct should answer some questions about War Pass, and whether his Tampa Bay Derby flop was a fluke.
If he runs well - and he has had some bullet workouts - he could again be a major player.
