Stonestreet Stables and WinStar Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Carpe Diem (Giant's Causeway) kicks off his Triple Crown season in a solid renewal of the GII Tampa Bay Derby. The $1.6-million OBS March '14 co-topper went two-for-two with a clear-cut 6 1/4-length score in Keeneland's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity Oct. 4, and rallied from far out of it to nip Upstart (Flatter) for a distant second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 1. He appears to be working well at trainer Todd Pletcher's Palm Beach Downs base. “His works have been very impressive,” confirmed Pletcher, who is seeking a record third Tampa Derby trophy. “He has looked super in the mornings, and we are looking forward to him getting started again. After the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, he went back to Kentucky for a little bit of a holiday at WinStar. He has been training very well [since mid-January], and hopefully this is the first step to bigger things to come.”
Barbara Banke's Stonestreet will also be represented by the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Ocean Knight (Curlin). “I know [Banke] had been trying to keep the two horses split up, but the weather got in the way,” Pletcher noted. “It doesn't matter to us. We're very pleased with the way our horse has been preparing, and you expect to run against nice horses in these kind of races.” Ocean Knight was a $320,000 buy at the same OBS sale as Carpe Diem. A 4 1/4-length debut winner sprinting over the Aqueduct inner Dec. 13, the bay ran down pacesetting Divining Rod (Tapit) to win by a neck in the GIII Sam F. Davis S. here Jan. 31. My Johnny Be Good (Colonel John) and Ami's Flatter (Flatter) were third and fourth, respectively.
Roy and Gretchen Jackson homebred Divining Rod, a son of MGISW turfer Precious Kitten (Catienus), scored first up for Arnaud Delacour in a rained-off Laurel affair Nov. 21 before finishing third over the local lawn Dec. 26. Dismissed at 28-1 in the Sam Davis, he was able to get away with soft fractions before nearly blowing up the tote. Mark Casse won this race three years ago with a John Oxley-owned son of Malibu Moon in Prospective, and both of his 2015 representatives fit the same description.
Danzig Moon was a very impressive third-up graduate at a mile at Gulfstream Feb. 7, while Moonlight Bandit was third in a grassy optional claimer in Hallandale last out Feb. 8.
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