The Indiana Derby, trainer Brian Lynch believes, does not define the route capabilities of the 3-year-old colt Big Truzz, and after an eye-catching victory in the 1 1/2-turn Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 10, Big Truzz will get another shot in a true route next month.
Big Truzz won the Ellis Park Derby by seven lengths, his one-mile time of 1:34.73 over a fast track yielding a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. That easily surpassed Big Truzz’s previous top of 91 and made him one of only eight 3-year-olds to earn a triple-digit Beyer in a dirt race at one mile or longer. And the performance, Lynch said, will send Big Truzz onto the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 20 at Parx Racing.
The Pennsylvania Derby, a 1 1/8-mile contest, will mark Big Truzz’s second try around two turns. In his first, he backed up to sixth, beaten more than seven lengths, in the 1 1/16-mile Indiana Derby on July 5. Lynch said that start came as something as an afterthought about one month after Big Truzz had finished third in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens over seven furlongs at Saratoga.
An equally important consideration in assessing the showing: Big Truzz stalked the pace while wide and made a bid into the far turn while three to four paths off the fence. That trip came over a racing surface intensely biased toward inside speed, and Tip Top Thomas won the Indiana Derby after dueling on a strong pace.
“He’s by Justify out of a Curlin mare. And the way he finished the other day, I’d have to think he can get a mile and an eighth,” Lynch said.
Big Truzz scored a flashy debut win in April at Keeneland and ran well in two subsequent longer sprints before going to Indiana. A classic-looking colt with clear ability, Big Truzz appears to have matured through the summer.
“I always thought a race like that was in his repertoire,” said Lynch, who trains Big Truzz for Flying Dutchmen.
Lynch said a top 3-year-old filly he trains for Flying Dutchmen, Shred the Gnar, is nearing her first timed workout since being scratched lame from the Acorn Stakes in early June. Her 94 Beyer in a seven-length romp in a first-level Churchill allowance race in May remains the second-highest figure this year in a 3-year-old filly dirt route.
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