OLDSMAR, Fla. – Last Saturday, Iron Honor went from a debut victory to winner of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes. On the same day, Chief Wallabee came within a neck of doing the same in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Previously this year, So Happy won the Grade 2 San Vicente and Golden Tempo the Grade 3 Lecomte, both in their second career starts following first-out victories.
On Saturday, Canaletto will attempt to jump out of a maiden success and onto the Kentucky Derby trail when he starts in the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs. The 1 1/16-mile Tampa Derby, which drew a field of nine, offers its top five finishers qualifying points (50-25-15-10-5) to the May 2 Kentucky Derby.
Canaletto, like Iron Honor, is trained by Chad Brown. Sidelined by shins as a 2-year-old, Canaletto made it to the races on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park. On a track that favored outside runners, Flavien Prat took advantage of his outside draw, sat three wide, and when he asked Canaletto to run, he took off, winning by eight lengths.
Prat, who rides again Saturday, mentioned immediately after the race that Canaletto was a “bit studdish in the paddock but as soon as I got on the track, he was a real pro and did everything right in the race,” he said.
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Brown flirted with the idea of running back in the Fountain of Youth, but ultimately went back to his original plan, which was the Tampa Bay Derby, a race he won in 2024 with Domestic Product.
“I more or less went back to my first instinct, which was to give him a little more time to get over that first race,” Brown said. “I just feel like the first time I run two turns the flow of the race at Tampa may suit him better.”
Canaletto drew post 9, but horses like Helium (post 10 of 11), King Guillermo (11 of 11), and Tacitus (10 of 11) were able to overcome outside draws in the Tampa Bay Derby.
Canaletto isn’t the only horse moving from a debut race to the Tampa Bay Derby. Powershift was beaten by the Brown-trained Emerging Market in a highly rated mile and 40-yard maiden race on the Feb. 7 card here. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won a record six Tampa Bay Derbies, said if Powershift had won, this is where he would have run him, so he’s sticking with that plan.
Pletcher won the Sam F. Davis – the local prep for the Tampa Bay Derby – with the maiden Renegade, who is being pointed elsewhere. Renegade had been disqualified from a debut victory at Aqueduct in October, then finished second to Paladin in the Grade 2 Remsen in December.
The Puma, who will start from post 8 for trainer Gustavo Delgado, also is a maiden. He finished second to Chief Wallabee when both debuted Jan. 10 at Gulfstream. The Puma encountered some traffic when finishing third to Renegade in the Sam Davis.
“We’re of the opinion he should have run second,” said Gustavo Delgado Jr., assistant trainer to his father. “I think after the race what we have seen are a good couple of breezes where he’s not that speed-oriented – both with Javier [Castellano]. I think he should move forward in the sense that it’s his third start and they usually get better.”
Hulkamania, trained by Whit Beckman, won a seven-furlong maiden race Feb. 8 at Tampa and now steps up in company and out in distance.
All these upstarts will have to deal with the more experienced and more accomplished Further Ado, who won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs last November after winning a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Keeneland by 20 lengths.
The maiden win comes with a few caveats. The Keeneland track that day favored forwardly placed horses and Further Ado sat second early on. Also, the combined record of the 11 horses Further Ado beat that day is 4 for 26, with two wins coming in maiden-claiming races and two coming on synthetic.
Further Ado is trained by Brad Cox, who said he’s loved the way his colt progressed over the winter in his training at Payson Park.
“He’s not an imposing horse, no one’s going to look at him and say ‘holy cow,’ ” Cox said. “But he’s a very, very good work horse.”
And the layoff?
“It depends on how the race setup and all the dynamics that go into it, but I think fitness-wise he’s there,” Cox said.
Redland Rebels moves back to the dirt – a surface on which he finished fourth in a sprint debut last July – after running two good races on turf, including a runner-up finish in the Kitten’s Joy Stakes.
“He’s bred to go on the dirt, the only reason to go on turf is because he cannot go six or seven furlongs, he needs to have two turns,” trainer Patrick Biancone said. “We think he has a lot of talent. If you look at the numbers, if he repeats the same on dirt as on turf, he’ll be good.”
Junior Alvarado rides Redland Rebels from the rail.
Talkin, runner-up to Napoleon Solo in the Grade 1 Champagne last October, makes his first start since he finished ninth behind Paladin in the Remsen. Joel Rosario rides for Danny Gargan.
Thunder Buck, who finished 10th in the Lecomte when trained by Cox, now goes out first time for Brendan Walsh. He was supplemented to the race by his owner, Calumet Farm.
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