Plenty of talent in turf stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In its heyday at Calder Racecourse, the Tropical Park Derby was run on New Year’s Day and was the first Derby of the New Year. Considered by many to be the first step on the Triple Crown trail, its roster of winners includes both Barbaro (four months before his victory in the 2006 Kentucky Derby) and the now prolific turf sire Kitten’s Joy (2004).

Nowadays, the Tropical Park Derby is no longer graded, and on Saturday it will become the last Derby of the season when going as one of six turf stakes on an excellent 11-race program at Gulfstream Park that kicks off at noon.

Although there are no Barbaros or Kitten’s Joys in the lineup, the field of 14 that will go 1 1/16 miles in this year’s Tropical Park Derby is a good one, led by A Thread of Blue, winner of the inaugural running of the $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational on Aug. 4. A Thread of Blue returns locally for the first time since proving a popular winner of the Grade 3 Palm Beach here on March 2 and is perfect in three starts over the Gulfstream Park turf. He also was graded stakes-placed twice in 2019 after finishing second in both the American Turf at Churchill Downs and in his most recent start, the Hill Prince at Belmont Park on Oct. 5.

“We were going to Del Mar to the Hollywood Derby but with all the weather and flight issues, we changed up and decided to run here,” trainer

Kiaran McLaughlin said. “He’s doing real well, worked great the other day, he’s 3 for 3 over this turf course, and we can still bring him back in the Pegasus [Turf Invitational] off this race if we want. We’ll see.”

A Thread of Blue led throughout to win the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Derby and the Dania Beach here in his 3-year-old debut, and he’ll have to put his abundant speed to good use Saturday after drawing the extreme outside, post 14, for the Tropical Park Derby. Regular rider Luis Saez will again have the call.

There also are two other derby winners in the field, English Bee and Faraway Kitten. In fact, English Bee is a two-time derby winner for trainer Graham Motion, having registered a hard-fought head decision over Jais’s Solitude in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs and a similarly game neck victory in the Parx Fall Derby five weeks later. English Bee finished second, 2 3/4 lengths behind A Thread of Blue, when the pair last met under allowance conditions here a year ago.

Faraway Kitten won the Grade 3 American Derby at Arlington Park in July but is winless in four subsequent starts. He is one of three horses trainer Mike Maker entered in the Tropical Park Derby along with Temple and Kadar, who finished one-two, noses apart, in the Gio Ponti Stakes last month at Aqueduct.

Jais’s Solitude was an apparent derby winner earlier in the season when crossing the finish line first in Laurel Park’s Bald

Eagle Derby only to lose the victory via stewards disqualification.

Here’s a quick look at the five other stakes on Saturday’s card:

$100,000 Janus (Race 4) The top three finishers in this five-furlong race a year ago, Vision Perfect, Extravagant Kid, and course record-holder Pay Any Price, meet again. Vision Perfect led throughout before drawing away late to a 2 1/2-length victory as the 6-5 favorite but has not won since. Extravagant Kid became Grade 1-placed earlier this season when second-best in Woodbine’s Highlander. Pay Any Price caps off his 9-year-old campaign making his first start since winning the Crystal River Stakes here May 27.

$100,000 Abundantia (Race 6)

Another reigning winner, the speedy Girls Know Best, returns to defend the title she won in gate-to-wire fashion here a year ago as the tepid 3-1 favorite. She most recently finished fifth in the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes at Santa Anita. Jean Elizabeth figures to test last year’s winner from the outset in this five-furlong event while seeking to add to a four-race win streak that includes a victory in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion at Woodbine. Eyeinthesky or the locally based Violent Times are other key contenders.

$75,000 Tropical Park Oaks (Race 7)

Motion sends out the Frenchbred Devant, a Group 3 winner as a 2-year-old, and she could be the filly to beat in this

1 1/16-mile race. Devant was most recently third making her U.S. debut under optionalclaiming conditions last month at Churchill Downs. She was defeated that day by Our Bay B Ruth, who makes her stakes debut Saturday in a lineup that also includes the multiple stakes winner Souper Escape and Virginia Oaks heroine Carnival Colors. The undefeated Mexican sensation Letruska, making her first start on grass, is another interesting contender. $75,000 Via Borghese (Race 10)

A wide-open group of 10 older fillies and mares will face off in this 1 3/16-mile contest. The group includes Pivotal Connection, fourth in the Grade 3 Long Island in her last start; the stakes-placed War Cabinet; two-time Maryland stakes winner My Sistersledge; Grade 3 winner A. A. Azula’s Arch; and Group 1 Brazilian-bred winner Touriga.

$100,000 Allen Jerkens

(Race 11)

This grueling two-mile test has drawn 10 entrants, none of whom have ever gone that far. American Tattoo figures to be the choice off his third-place finish in the Grade 2, 1 3/4-mile Marathon on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, a race during which the Argentine-bred forced the issue the entire way. Salute the Colonel, who registered three consecutive victories in starter allowance stakes at distances ranging from 1 3/16 to 1 1/2 miles here earlier in the year, also should take plenty of backing.