Holy Bull

TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack provides his analysis for Saturday's quartet of GI Kentucky Derby prep races. GIII Holy Bull S. - Last year's jaw-dropping GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) finds a perfect landing spot to launch his sophomore season versus seven overmatched rivals. Not worth trying to beat him here, even if he's closer to 1-9 than his 3-5 morning-line quote. I can't see him defeating the recently crowned 2023 champion 2-year-old, but how about Domestic Product (Practical Joke) to...

Saturday's graded stakes races stretch out from coast to coast and feature significant GI Kentucky Derby implications, but not entirely for the reasons we've come to expect. In South Florida, it is business as usual for the Derby preps while on the West Coast all things Kentucky Derby took an unprecedented turn. On the heels of a very successful GI Pegasus World Cup weekend, Gulfstream Park offers a tremendous card with five graded races, including the 34th running of the GIII Holy Bull S. named for the Hall of Famer...

Led by last term's hard-fought GII Remsen S. winner Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), a deep field of nine will line up for Saturday's GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Park. Owned by Donegal Racing and trained by Todd Pletcher, Mo Donegal outslugged Zandon (Upstart) by a nose after a roughly run stretch drive while making his stakes debut in that aforementioned 1 1/8-mile affair at Aqueduct last time Dec. 4. "We decided that the Holy Bull was the right starting point," Pletcher said. "It gives us plenty of options. If...

   Gray horses have been in a GI Kentucky Derby rut the past 15 years. No fewer than 31 consecutive grays (or roans) have gone to post without winning on the first Saturday in May (or September) since Giacomo roared home in front at 50-1 in 2005. That's the longest Derby drought for grays in terms of consecutive starts since 1930, when Churchill Downs began compiling detailed records related to horse colors. There's an asterisk as to whether it's the longest stretch in terms of years. There was a 17-year...

Courtlandt Farm homebred Greatest Honour (Tapit) still hasn't quite figured things out completely, but the immaculately bred bay maintained his upward mobility and made the most of his raw ability to post a handy victory in Saturday's GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Park, earning 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in the process. Recent California transfer Tarantino (Pioneerof the Nile) attended the pace and stuck on for second ahead of 'TDN Rising Star' Prime Factor (Quality Road). Greatest Honour made a pair of starts over seven...

Mutasaabeq (Into Mischief), a stakes winner on both dirt and turf, will miss an expected start in Saturday's GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream and is off the GI Kentucky Derby trail, according to a report by Daily Racing Form's Mike Welsch. The Shadwell Stable colorbearer and 'TDN Rising Star' annexed the Mucho Macho Man S. in Hallandale last out and also captured the GIII Bourbon S. on the Keeneland turf in October. "The versatile Mutasaabeq, impressive winner of the Mucho Macho Man, who was pointing for Saturday's Holy Bull...

As a Hall of Fame jockey and two-time winning rider of the GI Kentucky Derby, Mike Smith knows his way around Churchill Downs. After having his morning-line favored mount Omaha Beach (War Front) scratched the week of the race last year, Smith is back aboard a major contender in Saturday's Run for the Roses. Wednesday, the 55-year-old rider who's still at the top of his game joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland. Calling in via Zoom from Louisville as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Smith talked...

Tiz the Law (Constitution), an impressive return winner of the GIII Holy Bull S. last Saturday, will remain in Florida leading up to the GI Kentucky Derby and will next contest the GI Florida Derby at Gulfstream Mar. 28, owner Sackatoga Stable announced Friday. The Barclay Tagg trainee, who won last year's GI Champagne S. before finishing a close third in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., was also being considered for the GII Louisiana Derby. "There really are a number of factors, starting with how well he ran in...

Ed DeRosa of Brisnet.com takes on TDN's Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato as they handicap Triple Crown prep races plus the big three races themselves. The three will make $100 Win/Place bets in the preps and $200 Win/Place bets in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. Highest bankroll at the end wins. DeRosa - GIII Holy Bull S. - What a way to kick off the Brisnet Triple Crown Throwdown: three races coast to coast with at least a pair of vulnerable favorites. I'm all for taking another shot against...

Attempting to build on the promise he showed last summer, Stronach Stables' Green Light Go (Hard Spun) will kick off his 3-year-old season against dazzling debut winner Untitled (Khozan) and six other foes in an intriguing renewal of the GIII Swale S. Saturday at Gulfstream. Unveiled by trainer Jimmy Jerkens July 4 at Belmont, the bay went to the lead and shook off the bid of subsequent SW/GSP colt Another Miracle (American Pharoah) en route to a 3 1/4-length success before scoring by a similar margin, this time from off...

The last time Sackatoga Stable and Barclay Tagg were on the GI Kentucky Derby trail together, it was with a relative no-name, at least until the First Saturday in May, when the entire racing world became aware of their future superstar Funny Cide (Distorted Humor). This time around, 17 years and some gray hairs later, all eyes will be on them and their charge from the jump, as Grade I winner Tiz the Law (Constitution) gets his highly-anticipated 3-year-old campaign underway as a heavy favorite in Saturday's GIII Holy Bull...