Friday notes/ Beyond the Florida Derby

There is more going on at Gulfstream Park on Saturday than the Florida Derby.

Backseat Rhythm has her trainer very confident ahead of her first stakes engagement of 2008 as the daughter of El Corredor heads into the $150,000 Bonnie Miss Stakes – the Kentucky Oaks prep on the undercard of Saturday’s Florida Derby program at Gulfstream Park.

Pat Reynolds, who saddled the filly to a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall at Monmouth Park behind eventual champion two-year-old filly Indian Blessing, is very eager to take on the nine-furlong distance.

“I’m confident right up to just below the point of overconfidence,” said Reynolds. “She’s doing good. She got what she needed out of her last race. I expect her to fire a good race.”

Backseat Rhythm finished third in a 1 1/16 miles turf allowance race on last month in a spot Reynolds used mainly as a jumping-off point.

“The grass will be the backup plan for her,” he said. “All the money for these fillies is on the dirt. The last race was the first chance we got to get her going a mile-and-a-sixteenth. Turf or dirt didn’t matter. She’s really going to like the distance and she’s had a good gap between the races.”

There is great potential in a absolutely wide-open Florida Derby to muddle the Kentucky Derby picture with two formidable but absolutely unknown factors in Big Brown and Tomcito needing top-three finishes if they are to gain sufficient graded stakes earnings to assure entry to the field at Churchill Downs in the likely event the Derby is oversubscribed and several others already prominent at the mercy of pace. This is a race with great longshot potential.

Meanwhile, next Saturday’s Wood Memorial turn out to be a far more interesting race than any of the Derby preps seen to date.

War Pass, the no-longer undefeated 2007 juvenile champion, breezed a half mile in :47.80 at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida on Thursday, a work in advance of the Wood that suggests that his awful effort in the Tampa Bay Derby may well have been an aberration.

“The work went terrific, and we’re glad to have another chance at the Wood Memorial,” said trainer Nick Zito, who won the Wood Memorial previously with Thirty Six Red (1990), Adonis (1999) and Bellamy Road (2005).

Zito has seven horses nominated to the Wood Memorial, and may run Anak Nakal in the nine-furlong race. A son of 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop, Anak Nakal was second in the Nashua last October and then won the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs. He is 0-for-2 this year, badly beaten in both the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park and the Rebel at Oaklawn Park.

Although they have barns at Belmont Park, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and trainer Barclay Tagg will ship their respective Wood Memorial entries, Court Vision and Tale of Ekati, to Aqueduct next week.

Mott is in search of his first Wood Memorial victory and Court Vision scored his biggest victory at Aqueduct when he won the nine-furlong Remsen last fall.

Tagg got a big victory from Big Truck in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby and now looks for a second straight victory in the Wood Memorial with Tale of Ekati. Tagg won the 2007 Wood Memorial with Nobiz Like Shobiz.

Today at Aqueduct: Wild Hoots, one of three Kiaran McLaughlin-trained four-year-old fillies in a field of five appears to be a strong speed-of-the-speed play in her current form and will be tempting at a price near her 2-1 morning-line odds.

At the races selections

Florida Derby

Hey Byrn
Smooth Air
Majestic Warrior
BB Frank
Elysium Fields

Bonnie Miss

Robbie’s Gal
Highest Class
Backseat Rhythm

Next Move

Wild Hoots
Stage Luck
Runaway Rosie


BloodHorse launches on-line competition

Edited press release

BloodHorse.com announced on Friday the launch of an interactive game entitled “March into May.” For the five week period leading up to this year’s Kentucky Derby, Thoroughbred racing fans can cast their votes to determine “the greatest Thoroughbred of all-time.”

Selected by Blood-Horse staff, the top 32 horses of all time have been placed into a bracket. Now it is up to the fans to vote for their favorites, deciding which horse among each head-to-head was the better racehorse. The horses receiving the most votes in each bracket will advance to the next round of sixteen, then eight, then four, and ultimately down to the final two. Will it be Spectacular Bid? Secretariat? Phar Lap? Each week, a new round of voting will commence until one classic Thoroughbred captures the crown. Fans may register to participate by visiting: http://www.BloodHorse.com/March-into-May/