Robert V. LaPenta’s Dialed In got the fast pace he wanted to set
up his late kick in Sunday’s $1 million
Florida Derby (G1), but the deep closer
had to pull out all the stops to catch the 68-1 longest shot on the board, Shackleford. Patiently ridden by Julien Leparoux, the Nick Zito
trainee got up in time to capture the season’s deepest and most contentious prep
for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.
“I haven’t felt this emotional in 20 years since Strike the Gold,” Zito said,
alluding to his 1991 Kentucky Derby winner.
“We had a plan,” Zito added. “Julien did what we asked him to (to rate off
pace). It was a gamble with the speed bias, but I knew he was capable of running
this type of race. I knew he could do this if he stayed healthy.
“He’s amazing and I’m blessed. Once he got in position (to rally) I felt
good. I’ve thought all along he was one of the top three-year-olds in the
country, and he proved it today.”
As expected, Grade 2 Fountain of Youth winner Soldat took back from his rail
post, eschewing the front-running role this time. But the Grade 2 Hutcheson
winner Flashpoint, who was stepping up to two turns for the first time, didn’t
take the pacesetting job.
Instead, To Honor and Serve flashed speed into the first turn,
only to defer to the hustling Shackleford. Carving out honest splits of :23 1/5,
:46 1/5 and 1:10 3/5, Shackleford was prompted by To Honor and Serve, while
Flashpoint was forwardly placed in third. Arch Traveler raced in fourth through
the opening half-mile, followed by Soldat, Grade 3 Gotham winner Stay Thirsty
and Bowman’s Causeway, and Dialed In, the 5-2 second choice, was reserved in
his favorite spot, last of all.
Despite the testing pace, Shackleford was still full of run turning for home, and was clearly a different
horse from the one who finished a remote fifth in the Fountain of Youth. He
repelled a short-lived bid from To
Honor and Serve, and opened up by two lengths through a mile in 1:36 1/5. His pursuers
were sputtering, with one ominous
exception.
Dialed In had commenced his patented rally on the far turn, and straightening
into the stretch, took aim on the unheralded leader. A determined Shackleford
dug in and threatened to spring the massive upset, but Dialed In was relentless.
Collaring the longshot in the final strides, Dialed In thrust his head in front
and completed 1 1/8 miles in
1:50 on Gulfstream Park’s fast track, paying $7.80, $4.80 and $4.
Shackleford rewarded his loyalists with mutuels of $36.60 and $15.20 for his
monster effort.
“That’s a real tough beat,” trainer Dale Romans said. “He ran super. I’m very
proud of him. If $200,000 (the runner-up’s share of the purse) is enough to get
into the (Kentucky) Derby, I think we’ll have to go. He’s a horse that keeps
improving.
“We drew a line in his last race. We had no excuse for it. He came back and
showed us he’s better than his last race showed. He just dug back in and
galloped out real strong. He’s doing everything right.”
Another 6 3/4 lengths adrift in third was To Honor and Serve.
Flashpoint checked in fourth, 2 1/4 lengths clear of Soldat, who outfinished
Arch Traveler by a nose for fifth. After another 6 1/4-length gap came Stay
Thirsty, and Bowman’s Causeway was eased.
Soldat’s worst career effort left trainer Kiaran McLaughlin at a loss.
“(Jockey Alan Garcia) said he just didn’t fire his ‘A’ race today,”
McLaughlin said. “He didn’t have much horse when he pulled him out. He took a
lot of dirt, but you’re going to have to take dirt, so we’ll regroup and look
him over.”
Dialed In had first stamped himself as a major-league talent when winning his
debut at Churchill Downs last November. Overcoming a slew of rookie mistakes,
the son of Mineshaft rallied furiously to prevail by a half-length in a 6
1/2-furlong maiden. He will now return there as a major contender for the 137th
Run for the Roses, with a sparkling 4-3-1-0 mark and $879,206 in his bankroll.
“I’ve been around long enough to know how special he is with just four races
— from one 6 1/2-furlong maiden race as a two-year-old,” Zito said.
His Florida Derby victory was a training triumph for Hall of Famer Zito, who
called an audible earlier in the season with his highly-regarded colt. Dialed In
was supposed to make his second career start in a January 21 allowance at
Gulfstream, but Zito opted to scratch when the track came up sloppy, and watched
from the sidelines as Soldat romped. Denied his chance to stretch out to 1 1/8
miles that day, Dialed In came back nine days later in the January 30, Grade 3
Holy Bull at a one-turn mile, where he uncorked an impressive last-to-first
victory.
Zito could have stuck to his original road map and entered Dialed In in the
February 26 Fountain of Youth, but he didn’t like the timing from the Holy Bull.
The horseman needed to find another 1 1/8-mile prep for the Florida Derby, and
he got an allowance to fill on March 6, partly by running his four-year-old
Equestrio. The short field, with no pace, didn’t suit Dialed In’s tastes, and
Equestrio put the race away with a well-timed move. Nevertheless, Dialed In
likely learned a few things in his first try around two turns, closing strongly
for second and opening up on the gallop-out. Those lessons were put to good use
Sunday.
“I think his last race really helped him today,” Leparoux said. “I loved his
last race. It was a very good learning race. He learned to run between horses
and take dirt in his face and it all paid off today.”
Zito took a similar view of the colt’s only loss.
“Even when he got beat by Equestrio, a good four-year-old, it was like a
Grade 3 race,” Zito said. “And then today to beat horses that have won races
like the (Grade 2) Remsen (To Honor and Serve) and Fountain of Youth, you just
can’t do what he’s done.”
Bred by W.S. Farish, Madeleine Pickens and Skara Glen Stables in Kentucky,
Dialed In was purchased by LaPenta’s Whitehorse Stables for $475,000 as a Fasig-Tipton
Saratoga yearling. He is out of the Grade 2-placed Storm Cat mare Miss
Doolittle, whose other offspring include stakes winner Broadway Gold, the
stakes-placed Mambo Master, an unnamed juvenile colt by Ghostzapper and a
newborn filly by Curlin.
Miss Doolittle is herself a half-sister to current Irish stakes hero Samuel
Morse, runner-up in last year’s Group 2 Railway and Group 3 Anglesey and third
in the Group 2 Futurity. Miss Doolittle is herself a daughter of Eliza, the
champion two-year-old filly of 1992 who went on to finish second in the Grade 1
Kentucky Oaks in 1993. This is also the family of Dinard, the winner of the
Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in 1991, and more recently, Run It, hero of the Grade
3 Berkeley, and Spacy Tracy, who captured last November’s Grade 2 Top Flight.
Zito and LaPenta were teaming up to win the Florida Derby for the second
straight year, having connected with Ice Box here in 2010.
They are the first owner/trainer tandem to score back-to-back wins in the
Florida Derby since Calumet Farm and Jimmy Jones won with Gen. Duke and Tim Tam
in 1957-58. The highly-touted Gen. Duke was scratched with a foot injury on the
morning of the 1957 Kentucky Derby, but Tim Tam won the Roses in 1958.
Could another tale of two stablemates unfold in 2011? Ice Box finished a
hard-charging second in the 2010 Run for the Roses, and Dialed In will try to go
one better.
“We’ve been to the (Kentucky) Derby several times,” LaPenta said, “and look
forward to doing it again. We almost won it with Ice Box, but it does feel
special to finish second.”