Becky’s Kitten hoping to keep Tropical Park Derby in the
family
Six years after his sire, Kitten’s Joy, kicked off his Eclipse Award-winning
campaign with a victory in the $100,000
Tropical
Park Derby (G3), BECKY’S KITTEN will attempt to land another edition of the
1 1/8-mile turf event at Calder for owner-breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey. The
Tropical Park Derby, whose recent winners also include 2006 Kentucky Derby (G1)
winner Barbaro, is the lone graded stakes around the nation on New Year’s Day
and the final stakes of the Tropical-at-Calder meet, which concludes Saturday.
A winner in his first turf attempt at Saratoga, Becky’s Kitten rallied to
be second in the Summer S. (Can-G3) in his next start after trailing the field
of 10 at the first call. Forwardly placed behind a soft pace in the Breeders’
Cup Juvenile Turf (G2) last time, the dark bay was forced to steady three
furlongs from home and retreated to ninth in the capacity field of 12. Elvis
Trujillo takes over from Julien Leparoux on the Wesley Ward trainee Friday.
LOST APTITUDE (Aptitude), a romping winner of an allowance and the Grand
Canyon H. during the Churchill Downs fall meet, figures to be one of the
favorites. Finding himself alone on the lead in the Grand Canyon, Lost Aptitude
proceeded to set a moderate pace under Jon Court and had plenty left turning for
home to win going away by 5 1/4 lengths. Lost Aptitude is conditioned by Dale
Romans, who saddled Kitten’s Joy to victory in 2004.
CAT PARK (Tale of the Cat), seven lengths third to Lost Aptitude in the Grand
Canyon, was a convincing turf allowance winner at Keeneland two back over yielding
ground, and would be one to consider should similar conditions arise for the
Tropical Park Derby. Leparoux has taken the mount on the chestnut who sports the
prominent green and white silks of Augustin Stable and is trained by Graham
Motion.
More than half the field will be making their stakes debuts in this spot. OUR
CHAMPION (Value Plus), SUNRISE NURSERY (Roman Ruler) and FLY BY PHIL (Act of
Duty) all exit first-level allowance wins at Calder, the latter being the only
one of the three who has yet to race and win on the grass. GATOR TIGER (Tiger
Ridge) was only a neck behind Our Champion in their November 29 showdown, a mere
18 days after he won his turf debut by a comfortable two lengths.
Another intriguing candidate is TRIPPO (Trippi), who graduated on the
Aqueduct turf two back and won a photo for the place in his allowance debut over
the same course on soft ground. The Frank Alexander-trained colt recorded solid
BRIS Late Pace figures of 104 and 97 in those two efforts.