Kentucky Derby Season

By Greg Melikov: Kentucky Derby season 007 kicks into gear at Gulfstream Park with a key 3-year-old stakes on the second of four Spectacular Saturdays. The spotlight will be on Nobiz Like Shobiz, probable post-time favorite in the $150,000 Holy Bull Stakes.

The Holy Bull Stakes will be at the reduced distance of a mile.

The impeccably bred son of Albert the Great has posted a string of strong workouts, including a snazzy 1:11 4/5 handily over the South Florida track's fast surface on Jan. 25.

The colt last raced on Nov. 25 scoring an impressive victory by 6 ½ lengths in the 1 1/8-mile Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct. His granddaddy, Go for Gin, won the Holy Bull in '94 when known as the Preview Stakes, running the fastest 1 1/16 miles when staged at the distance – 1:41 3/5.

I was there when Holy Bull swallowed his palate and finished off the board. However, the loser got revenge in the Florida Derby, winning by 5 ¾ lengths while Go for Gin ran fourth. I hit the exacta with Ride the Rails underneath that returned a surprising $58.40 for $2.

Go for Gin bounced back to take the 120 th Kentucky Derby while Holy Bull finished 12th after breaking slowly, being carried very wide in the slop and tiring badly.

But Holy Bull got the last laugh. After missing the remaining two legs of the Triple Crown, he scored five straight victories and earned Sophomore and Horse of the Year honors.

Nobiz Like Showbiz won his debut on Sept. 9 at Belmont Park by 10 ¾ lengths. He finished a strong second in the Champagne Stakes on Oct. 14 to Scat Daddy, his main Holy Bull rival. The son of Johannesburg triumphed by three-quarters of a length at a mile after the runner-up grabbed the lead in the stretch by a head after being pinched back to fourth at the break.

Neither trainer is a stranger to Gulfstream or the Kentucky Derby trail. Barclay Tagg sent out Funny Cide in the '03 Holy Bull and he finished fifth. But the gelding drew post 13, hit the gate and was unable to drop over.

Well, I bet him at 59-1 in The Derby Futures and hit the $632 trifecta on Kentucky Derby race day at Greater San Antonio's Retama Park.

Todd Pletcher, who has quite a few Derby hopefuls is no slouch when it comes to taking stakes, banking the most money over the last couple of years. However, Scat Daddy hasn't gone further than six furlongs in both victories.

No remaining challenger has won a stakes race. The most promising is Our Sacred Honor, son of outstanding sprinter Honour and Glory who drew clear by 2 ½ lengths at a mile in a Gulfstream allowance race on Jan. 13.

It appears Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Street Sense won't run until the $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes at 7 ½ furlongs on Feb. 10 -- Spectacular Saturday III. His camp indicates the colt will only run one more time before the first Saturday in May.

The BC Juvenile winner has two jinxes to buck:

No victorious 2-year-old has smelled the Kentucky Derby roses while the last starter to score at Churchill Downs was Sea Hero in '93.

Only one of 52 horses with two Derby preps as a 3-year-old crossed the finish line first in Louisville since '48 – Sunny's Halo in '83.

However, Nobiz Like Shobiz will next go in the $350,000 Fountain of Youth States March 3 – one of four stakes on Spectacular Saturday III.

The centerpiece of Saturday's six-stakes card is the 49 th running of the $500,000 Donn Handicap at 1 1/8 miles.

Invasor, '06 Horse of the Year, faces a competitive field that includes Premium Tap, third behind the Argentine-bred in the Breeders' Cup Classic that later captured the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs; Strong Contender, fifth in Gulfstream's Hal's Hope after winning the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in September; and Chatain, who set the track record for a mile in the Hal's Hope on Jan. 6.

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