Donn

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

Saturday’s $500,000 Donn H. (G1) features a small but strong field of six
older horses. Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) runner-up ROSES IN MAY (Devil His Due)
will make his first start at Gulfstream Park in the 1 1/8-mile event and the
speedy five-year-old will likely come out running off the layoff. However, he’ll
face pressure from another quality contestant, SAINT LIAM (Saint Ballado), who
does his best running on the front end and loves Gulfstream (3-2-1-0). Both
merit serious respect for the win, but the Donn should set up for EDDINGTON
(Unbridled) from off the pace.

Trained by the red-hot Mark Hennig (winning at a 38 percent clip this meet),
Eddington has run some of his best races in Hallandale, Florida, recording BRIS
Speed ratings of 112, 105 and 106 for three victories over the track. The
four-year-old chestnut was extremely light on seasoning when placing in the
Preakness S. (G1) last May, and he needed time to recover from the toll that
that race and an appearance in the Belmont S. (G1) exacted upon him. He returned
from a freshening to just miss with a second-place finish in October’s Pegasus
H. (G3) and wrapped up his sophomore campaign with a victory in the grassy
Calder Derby (G3). Eddington looked like a much more mature and improved horse
when making his seasonal debut in an optional-claiming event here in
mid-January, rating near the back of the pack behind slow fractions of :23 4/5
and :48 2/5 before annihilating his rivals on the far turn and romping home
through the stretch for a 8 3/4-length victory. He earned a 121 Late Pace rating
for that performance. We’ll look for him to post an upset here with another
strong finish under Eibar Coa.

Roses in May suffered only one defeat last year, finishing second to Horse of
the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and has trained well in the mornings for
his 2005 return. The classy five-year-old took four of his five wins last season
in wire-to-wire fashion, but he showed in the Whitney H. (G1) that he could rate
successfully from just off the pacesetter. He’ll likely go right to the front on
Saturday and may never surrender his advantage.

Saint Liam was also extremely consistent for his connections last year and
really came on at the end with two strong performances, finishing second by a
neck to Ghostzapper in the Woodward S. (G1) prior to capturing the Clark H. (G2)
by 1 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs. The five-year-old has been firing bullet
workouts in preparation for his return and will likely give no quarter to Roses
in May on the front end in the early stages off the freshening. If Saint Liam
carries his form forward from last fall, he’ll be difficult to beat.

PIES PROSPECT (Crafty Prospector) enters on the upswing for conditioner Nick
Zito, taking the nine-furlong Fred. W. Hooper H. (G3) by 8 1/2 lengths at Calder last
out. The chestnut recorded a nice score over our top choice in the Pegasus last
October and will also look to pick up the pieces from off the pace here. His
last was a very encouraging effort (109 Speed rating), and we’ll use Pies
Prospect on the bottom of some exotics.

SEEK GOLD (Touch Gold) runs coupled with Pies Prospect and appears devoid of
early speed. He’ll attempt to offer a late showing, but we’d be surprised to see
him be a serious factor at this level. WISHINGITWAS (Sandpit [Brz]) steps up in
class and doesn’t look fast enough to offer a challenge.