The morticians who have been retained by a coalition of newspaper editors, legislators, think tankers and the like to bury the "dying thoroughbred industry" have been treated to another week's vacation. The results from Saturday forced the cemetery workers to put down their shovels again and wait for further word from the gloom-and-doom set. Word that promises to be a long time in coming.

    The Saturday leader in the handle department was Santa Anita, coming in at $17,769,157 with an attendance of 27,259. Makes you think about the old Yogi Berra quip: "It's so crowded nobody ever goes there anymore." Santa Anita was followed by the other Stronach entity, Gulfstream Park, with $14,806,523, while Aqueduct chimed in at $8,761,639. Oaklawn Park disappointed at $2,996,133 although a crowd of 16,000 wagered $940,685 on-track.

    The eye-opener of the weekend was Tampa Bay Downs, with the Gr. II Tampa Bay Derby anchoring a 12-race card that featured four stakes in all, three of them graded. With an on-track crowd of 10,206 as a base, the Oldsmar track posted the highest handle in its history - $12,250,447. The old record set in 2011 was $10,949,948.

    That comes to $56,583,899 for the five major tracks. 

    HERE ARE SOME WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

    TAMPA BAY DOWNS - Destin's marvelous victory in the Tampa Bay Derby was notable from many angles. In outgaming Outwork to the wire, he gave Todd Pletcher two more Kentucky Derby probables as the winner picked up 50 qualifying points and the runner-up 20. It was just the third start for Outwork, who had won his first two, and his first stakes try. The clocking of 1:42.82 for the 1 1/16 miles barely edged the track record of 1:42.83 set by Bold Start when he won the Challenger in 2010.  

    Brody's Cause, the son of Giant's Causeway who went off as the 2-1 favorite, finished seventh for trainer Dale Romans after never lifting his feet. The colt hadn't started since finishing third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31. Romans said he'll send Brody's Cause to the April 9 Blue Grass.    

    It will be interesting to see if the country's leading rider, Javier Castellano, opts to go further with Destin considering the show he put on and the number of horses Pletcher has who are Derby-bound. Todd wound up Saturday needing just two victories to reach the 4,000 mark. 

    In the race prior to the Derby, Robert (Bats) Masterson's Tepin made an incredible late run to win the Gr. II Hillborough on the grass after pacesetter Isabella Sings had opened up so many lengths the other fillies and mares couldn't be seen on the TV screen. But Julien Leparoux kept the Eclipse Award-winning daughter of Bernstein at the front of the pack, so that when she started rolling coming to the turn, she had nobody to pass but Isabella, and she did that in deep stretch in course-record time.

    Tepin's clocking of 1:46.26 broke the mile and one-eighth mark of 1:46.55 set by Special Envoy last year and gave the 5-year-old an enviable streak in her last nine races. She has posted seven victories and two seconds for trainer Mark Casse, the losses coming by a nose and a head, and eight of the nine were graded stakes. The $120,000 winner's share increased her earnings to $2,685,973. Before the current streak began in March of last year, Tepin finished eighth in the Gr. I Del Mar Oaks in August of 2014 at odds of 18-1. 

    Leparoux, whose name is mispronounced in this country almost as frequently as mischievous, had quite a successful trip, coming up from Gulfstream. He finished second in the $100,000 Challenger aboard Neck 'n Neck in a race won by Castellano on Adirondack King ($25.20), then won convincingly aboard first-time starter Formby ($18.20) in a $28,000 maiden special. 

    Julien then added the $200,000, Gr. III Florida Oaks with Baciami Piccoli ($31), who had started just three times in Europe with one victory, and the Hillsborough with Tepin, before finishing third with Calumet Farm's Star Hill in the Derby. 

    GULFSTREAM PARK - There were no less than six claims of $6,250 made in Saturday's second race, including the winner, Miss Dejavu, and the runner-up, Climate Change.

    The fifth-race winner was Phil's Comprise, a 4-year-old colt by Comprise, a stallion owned by the Rose Family, racing for $12,500. Phil's Comprise came from last place in a field of nine and got up by neck under Vicente Gudiel for his first victory after 42 losses. He paid $90.20 and grabbed a breeder's award for the Rose Family Stable and trainer Barry Rose.

    Seven days before, another Rose product, Diana's Comprise, won at Tampa after the Roses shipped her to trainer Alejandro Reyes at the beginning of the meeting. The 4-year-old filly had done well for Reyes, posting a second, three thirds and a fourth before winning for just the second time in 42 tries. She made a monster move on the turn and drew away to score by eight lengths, paying $5.40. 

    The Rainbow Six made it through another week and shot up to more than $3.1 million. If it isn't hit in the next two weeks, it will be given away on March 26. 

    A filly with one of the great names in racing, Miss Matzoball, won the $75,000 Captiva Island Stakes for Masie Stable and trainer Roy Lerman. The 4-year-old Smoke Glacken filly scored by half a length in :54.62 for five furlongs on the grass. The course record is :53.75. The filly's dam is the Royal Academy mare Miss Matzo. She's now earned $181,527. 

    

 

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