Correll’s Corner: “Road to the Derby”; Renegade impressive

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview

TRINITY, Fla. – We’ve now gone through the Withers (won by Talk to me Jimmy), the Southwest (Silent Tactic), the Sam F. Davis (Renegade) and the Robert B. Lewis (Plutarch) the weekend of Feb. 5-6 and we learned that Renegade and Plutarch have a future, not so much for the other two.

I know all tracks are different, but Renegade ran the fastest mile-and-a-sixteenth of all the 3-year-old prep races so far. Plutarch showed a lot of grit winning the Lewis and in a decent time. I’ll add both to my list and the next race up is the Risen Star at Fairgrounds on Feb. 14.

I will list the horse, sire, most recent race it was in and the trainer.

Renegade (Into Mischief) won the Sam F. Davis, Trainer, Todd Pletcher

Nearly (Not This Time) won the Holy Bull at Gulfstream. Todd Pletcher.

Further Ado (Gun Runner) won the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill. Brad Cox.

Plutarch (Into Mischief) won the Robert B. Lewis. Bob Baffert.

Solitude Dude (Yaupon) won the Swale at Gulfstream. Saffie Joseph Jr.

Golden Tempo (Curlin) won the Lecomte at Fairgrounds. Cherrie DeVaux

So Happy (Runhappy) won the San Vicente at Santa Anita. Mark Glatt.

Commandment (Into Mischief) won the Mucho Macho Man. Brad Cox.

Litmus Test (Nyquist) won the Los Alamitos Futurity. Bob Baffert.

Paladin (Gun Runner) won the Remsen at Aqueduct. Chad Brown.

Potente (Into Mischief) broke his maiden impressively at Santa Anita on first asking. Bob Baffert.