The weekend's results made another strong point for the Tampa Bay Derby being awarded Gr. I status. Talk about a key race. Outwork, Saturday's Wood Memorial winner, finished second behind Destin in the TBD and he's now won 3-of-4. Brody's Cause, Saturday's Toyota Blue Grass winner, finished a non-threatening seventh in Tampa, but his monster late run at Keeneland was impressive.

    The surprise of the Wood was runner-up Trojan Nation, who was still a maiden after five tries and came out the same way. But the son of Street Cry was gobbling up ground in deep stretch and looked like he would nail Outwork in a few more strides. He was 81-1, by the way. Trainer Paddy Gallagher says he may be sending his maiden to Louisville.

    Todd Pletcher has two Derby candidates - Destin and Outwork - and they both prepped in Oldsmar, along with Brody's Cause, who's trained by Dale Romans. 

    The most thrilling performance of the three big Derby preps was turned in by Exaggerator, who at one time was called as being 10 lengths behind the last horse in the leading group, so he must have been more than 15 lengths out of it, probably 17 or 18. The run he made on the turn was eye-opening, and he actually passed the leaders as they straightened out for home, not in deep stretch.

    ANOTHER RECORD - At Keeneland, they "only" handled $21,736,983, a single-day record for Blue Grass or any other day. There were 20,848 frigid souls on hand in 40ish temperatures or it would have been much more.  They must not have gotten the message in Lexington that the sport is dying. 

    WE'LL MISS BILL - Bill Kaplan announced his retirement just before the weekend and spent his final day as a trainer celebrating Florida Cup Day at Tampa Bay Downs. The long-time South Florida stalwart wound up an ultra-successful run with a third by Chief Attraction in the $75,000 Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies and a third by Extravagant Kid in the $75,000 OBS Sophomore Stakes. 

 

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