Gourmet Dinner brings plenty of experience to Holy Bull

Gourmet Dinner has won four of his five starts on dirt (Coady Photography) Delta Jackpot (G3) winner GOURMET DINNER (Trippi) tops a field of nine three-year-olds in Sunday’s $400,000 Holy Bull S. (G3), and his main top rivals include DIALED IN (Mineshaft) and BLACK N BEAUTY (Devil His Due), a pair of promising colts who will be making their stakes debuts in the one-mile event at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Steve Standridge, Gourmet Dinner owns plenty of stakes experience, winning two divisions of the Florida Stallion series before recording a 2 1/4-length score in the lucrative Delta Jackpot, and the bay colt exits a fourth in the December 18 CashCall Futurity (G1) over Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track. He already has enough graded earnings for the Kentucky Derby (G1) and will push his career bankroll past the $1 million mark with a victory Sunday. Gourmet Dinner tuned up for the Holy Bull with a five-furlong bullet workout in :58 2/5 on January 20, and he’ll retain the services of jockey Sebastian Madrid while breaking from the rail.

Dialed In turned heads when winning his initial outing for Nick Zito and the well-built sophomore will make his second career start in the
Holy Bull after being scratched from a recent allowance race due to a sloppy
track. He broke slowly in his lone appearance, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special
weight at Churchill Downs in November, and looked beaten turning for home, but the dark bay
closed rapidly through the stretch to win going away. Zito has the reputation
for giving his first-time starters a race, and the two-time Derby winner is
bullish about his colt’s Triple Crown prospects. Dialed In has recorded three
consecutive bullet workouts in preparation, including a :47 2/5 half-mile on
Monday, and Julien Leparoux will be back aboard.

Black N Beauty will attempt to build upon an impressive showing over the
track, capturing a January 7 entry-level allowance by 2 1/2 lengths, and the
Dale Romans pupil has won his last two starts in front-running fashion. The
Canadian-bred colt appears to be the likely pacesetter with Kent Desormeaux.

Arlington-Washington Futurity (G3) hero MAJOR GAIN (More Than Ready) merits
respect off a commendable third, beaten only a half-length, in the Kentucky
Jockey Club S. (G2) at Churchill Downs. He’ll cut back to a one-turn distance
for Wayne Catalano, and Javier Castellano will pick up the mount. The Holy Bull
also marks the return of MUCHO MACHO MAN (Macho Uno), who concluded his juvenile
season with a pair of runner-up finishes to the well-regarded To Honor and Serve
(Bernardini). The Kathy Ritvo trainee owns the best BRIS Speed rating (101) in
the field and will keep Eibar Coa in the saddle.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE (Harlan’s Holiday) recorded a good-looking maiden win at
Aqueduct two starts back and rallied well for second when making his stakes bow
in the six-furlong Spectacular Bid over the track on January 8. He’s eligible to
move forward off that effort for conditioner Richard Violette Jr. The remaining
contestants are SWEET DUCKY (Pulpit), a multiple stakes winner who was last seen
finishing fourth in the Delta Jackpot; Calder stakes winner and Grade 3
runner-up RIBO BOBO (Louis Quatorze); and PRINTING PRESS (Tapit), who finished
second in the aforementioned allowance to Black N Beauty.