“Road to the Kentucky Derby” The “Bull” is back

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview —-

TRINITY, Fla. – Citizen Bull, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and the 2-year-old Eclipse champion, started his sophomore season off with a bang taking the Robert B. Lewis on Feb. 1 at Santa Anita Park with ease.

The son of Into Mischief had a slight stumble at the start but managed to grab part of the early lead going into the first turn. He had a slight challenge from Clock Tower and Rodriguez but shook them both off going into the second turn and extended his lead to three-and-three-quarter lengths at the wire.

Rodriguez held for second and Madaket Road was third. The top three finishers are train by Bob Baffert. “The champ is back,” Baffert said from the Winner’s Circle. “The ‘Bull’ looked good coming down (the stretch). It’s funny, you see him and you don’t realize that he has those gears. He won’t show you that in the morning, but he does have gears.

“My other horses ran really well,” Baffert said of Rodriguez and Madaket Road. “They are learning their styles, and they need a little more racing. We are happy and especially winning the Robert B. Lewis because he was one of my favorite clients of all time.”

While the Lewis may have had the most talented group of colts there were two other Kentucky Derby points races on Feb. 1.

The Withers was at Aqueduct in New York and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. is back on the Kentucky Derby trail after Captain Cook won the mile-and-an-eighth race. Dutrow has had quite a checkered career with the high being Big Brown winning the 2008 Derby and then drawing a 10-year suspension for repeated drug violations for colts he trained.

Captain Cook, a son of Practical Joke, now has two wins from three starts and picked up 20 points. Surfside Moon was second and got 10 points. Cook received a 94 Beyer for the race but Dutrow wasn’t impressed. “I don’t care about Beyers,” Dutrow, Jr. said. “He’s a very relaxed horse, and we’re very lucky to have him. He was running against better horses and when he broke his maiden with us, he liked the track well enough, but we don’t really know if he beat anything that day. Facing these guys yesterday, there were horses that had the credentials to run big. Our horse just ran a big race, man.”

Dutrow say the next logical start would be in the nine-furlong Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, a 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Derby qualifier, on April 5. “That would give him plenty of time.”

The third points race was the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park in South Florida and a new face showed up to take the top prize. Burnham Square stepped into stakes company and showed he belonged.

The son of Liam’s Map was off slowly and trailed the field into the first turn. He started picking off colts going up the backstretch and make a wide move going around the second turn and pulled away from Tappan Street in the stretch to win the mile-and-a-sixteenth race in 1:37.19.

Burnham Square is trained by Ian Wilkes who said the next step could be the Fountain of Youth on March 1 at Gulfstream, but he was taking a wait and see approach.

This weeks top 3-year-olds:

Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) won the Lewis.

Barnes (Into Mischied) won the San Vicente.

Rodriguez (Authetic) second in the Lewis.

Disco Time (Not This Time) won the Lecomte at Fairgrounds.

Coal Battle (Coal Front) won both the Springboard Mile at Remington Park and the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park. He is trained by Lonnie Briley.

Burnham Square (Liam’s Map) won Holy Bull.

First Resort (Uncle Mo) won the Kentucky Jockey Club. He is trained by Eoin Harty.

Poster (Munnings) is undefeated in three starts and his last win was the Remsem at Aqueduct. Harty is the trainer.

Journalism (Curlin) won the Los Alamitos Derby. He is trained by Michael McCarthy.

Captain Cook (Practical Joke) won the Withers.