HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although 28 3-year-olds have been nominated to the $1 million Florida Derby on March 28 at Gulfstream Park, the starting lineup for the key Kentucky Derby prep figures to be small with three of the top four ranked members of the division pointing to the race – Chief Wallabee, Commandment, and Nearly.
Trainers Brad Cox and Todd Pletcher dominate the nomination list for the nine-furlong fixture with seven and four horses, respectively. Fountain of Youth winner Commandment tops the group for Cox, while Pletcher has been pointing Nearly to the race since his victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull earlier in the meet.
Trainer Bill Mott said all is good with Chief Wallabee, who breezed four furlongs in 49.00 seconds at Payson Park last Friday in his first work since his second-place finish to Commandment in the Fountain of Youth.
“He’s doing well out of the race. I don’t think we have to do anything too hard with him, just get him there,” Mott said Monday.
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Tampa Bay Derby winner The Puma is the only other member of the 20-horse Daily Racing Form Derby Watch being considered for the Florida Derby, with the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland also an option the following week.
“He’ll work here Friday or Saturday, depending on the weather, and we’ll make a decision after that,” assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said. “Factors that favor running him here are that this is his home track and it would give him an extra week afterwards to prepare for the Derby.”
Cox also has nominated seven of the 17 3-year-old fillies on the list for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, to be decided on the Florida Derby undercard. The Cox contingent is led by stakes winners On Time Girl, Paradise, and Sneaky Good, along with impressive local maiden winner Prom Queen.
The important Kentucky Oaks prep could lure the first three finishers from the one-mile Davona Dale here Feb. 28 – She Be Smooth, My Miss Mo, and the aforementioned On Time Girl. She Be Smooth is trained by Todd Pletcher, who also nominated the undefeated and virtually untested Zany to the event, although she is expected to make her next start opening day at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Ashland.
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