Tapwrit takes Tampa Derby; Mastery injured in San Felipe Victory

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview —-

Mastery easily won the battle in the Grade 2 San Felipe on March 11 at Santa Anita Park in Southern California but he lost the Kentucky Derby war when he was pulled up with a condylar fracture in his left front leg.

Trainer Bob Baffert said after the race, “When he got back to the barn, he seemed okay, but when he got off the wash rack, he showed some filling in his left front ankle. It’s a condylar fracture. He’ll be operated on this Monday and they’ll insert two screws. We won’t know until after the surgery whether or not this is career-ending.”

Jockey Mike Smith had jump off the son of Candy Ride after rounding the clubhouse turn following the race and said he thought there was something wrong with Mastery’s rear end. Smith was right to be very cautious and may have saved the colt from further injury or something worse.

Iliad picked up points for second and Term of Art was third. The big disappointment was Gormley who threw in the towel rounding the second turn and checked in fourth. Jockey Victor Espinoza said, “You know, Gormley was good all the way around. He kind of surprised me at the three-eighths pole where he kind of dropped the bridle and just kept moving along with the winner and I thought he’d finish second. It seems like he’s okay but these young horses, they’re still figuring it out. Race by race, they’re seeing what exactly they like and some little thing may not being going their way and they won’t race at their best but he’ll recover and do better in the next one.”

At Tampa Bay Downs on west coast of Florida, Tapwrit won the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in convincing form setting a stakes-record time of 1:43.36 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race. Tapwrit was second in the Sam F. Davis to McCraken who did not run in the Tampa Bay Derby because he missed some training because of a minor injury. Trainer Ian Wilkes has reported that McCraken is back in training and the Blue Grass at Keeneland is on their radar. State of Honor, Wild Shot and No Dozing rounded out the top four at Tampa Bay.

One of three Japanese colts could be in the Kentucky Derby starting gate if the connections choose to come. The three colts in order of preference are Epicharis, Mont Saint Legame and Adirato. The colts have 50, 40 and 20 points respectively, but I’m not going to add them to any list until a decision is made on coming to the United States.

The next race on March 18 will be the Rebel at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. Baffert reportedly will sent another of his stars, American Anthem, to that race.

Since we are into March I’m going to start a weekly top 10 picks from my point of view. The full points’ list can be found at the Churchill Downs web site.

Gunnevera 64 points

Guest Suite 15

Cover Photo: Mastery; Benoit Photo