Photo:
Juliana Colombo / Eclipse Sportswire
The Puma stalked the field of nine 3-year-olds and pounced in the lane to capture the 46th running of the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday and advance on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
With the victory, The Puma jumped from the maiden ranks into the second spot on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard by earning 50 qualifying points to add to the six he had acquired from his third-place finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in his previous start on Feb. 7. The Sam F. Davis is the traditional prep race for the Tampa Bay Derby.
“We’re a small barn. We have to scout, we have to buy the horses. It’s more gratifying when you only get one or two horses at the sale and they end up like this. It’s very satisfying. I’m very pleased. It’s not an easy thing when you enter a maiden in a stakes race. People think what are they doing? It’s a good thing when they respond on the track,” Gustavo Delgado Jr., the assistant trainer to his father, Gustavo Delgado Sr., told America’s Best Racing from the winner’s circle. “From the first time he ran, I said that this is a very good horse and I kept telling everyone.”
The Puma, who was ridden by Javier Castellano, broke alertly from the far outside post and settled off the pace as the field continued up the backside. The 38.80-1 long shot Redland Rebels under Junior Alvarado set splits of 23.07 and 46.48 seconds for the first half-mile in the 1 1/16-mile test over the fast main track. The Puma steadily advanced as he commenced his bid on the far turn, and by the time he reached the leaders at the top of the lane, he put his head in front. He dueled through the lane with Further Ado and the 1.50-1 favorite Canaletto, who was ridden by Flavien Prat, then edged clear by three-quarters of a length at the wire in a final time of 1:43.23 to the delight of the on-track crowd of 9,070.
Further Ado, trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., was the runner-up, and the Chad Brown-trained Canaletto finished a head behind him under Prat.
“Everybody was trying to save ground and there was a lot of traffic to get there from the outside post (No. 8). From there it’s really hard to go all the way to the inside. Nobody spilt up. I was tracking Canaletto with Prat all the way. I really like my horse and what he did and the way he did it. He ran really good,” said Castellano, who took the 2016 Tampa Bay Derby with Destin. “With three-year-olds, you have to give them a chance to develop. In his first race he got beat by a really good horse. In the second race (the Sam Davis) it was his first time around two turns. He started to figure it out today. When he got rolling, he did what he was supposed to do. I like the way he finished.”
Canaletto, who was a $1 million yearling purchase for Coolmore, Peter Brant and Brook T. Smith, was also attempting to handle the class hike from maiden ranks. In his previous start, he was an eight-length winner in a maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 under Prat.
“He was looking around. He never really traveled. They went fast and I was in deep water from the gate,” said Prat. “Then he made a run, surprisingly, and I thought he was going to make a run at the three-eighths pole. He was brave enough to make a run, but I never really felt that I was traveling well.”
Spendthrift Farm’s Further Ado picked up 25 Kentucky Derby points by finishing second to add to the 10 already in his column, and Canaletto earned 15 points. Redland Rebels took home 10 points to get on the Triple Crown trail, and Talkin garnered five points to bring his total to 10. Powershift, representing Repole Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher; Thunder Buck, making his first start for trainer Brendan Walsh after competing three times for Cox; Hulkamania, who is owned in part by former Major League Baseball player Jayson Werth’s Icon Racing Stables; and Smith Ranch Stables’ Roger That Dana completed the order of finish.
The Puma, who is by Essential Quality out of the Declaration of War mare Eve of War, was bred in Kentucky by Hidden Brook Farm and Brain Kahn and is owned by OGMA Investments, JR Ranch and High Strep Racing. OGMA Investments campaigned Mage, winner of the 2023 Kentucky Derby, and now they have another colt to take them back to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
“From the beginning (with The Puma) I said, ‘Let’s get everything.’ Right now, it makes sense,” said Delgado Jr.
The Puma, dispatched at 7.40-1, rewarded his backers with $16.80 for the $2 win wager as he picked up $210,000 from the purse to increase his earnings to $244,280.