Dust and Diamonds gears up for Pletcher debut; Romacaca ready for South Beach

Dust and Diamonds, a $900,000 purchase by Stud TNT at Fasig-Tipton, could return in the Sugar Swirl (Ross Woodson/Horsephotos.com)

Trainer Todd Pletcher has two of the most accomplished filly and mare
sprinters nominated for Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Sugar Swirl Stakes going
six furlongs at Gulfstream Park, and both turned in half-mile workouts at Palm
Meadows Sunday morning.

Dust and Diamonds was timed in an easy :52 in advance of her debut for new
connections, while Turbulent Descent drilled in a bullet :47, tying for the
fastest of 23 moves at the distance on the fast main track. Both four-year-olds
are kept on edge for their first start since the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
Sprint at Santa Anita on November 3.

Formerly trained by Steve Asmussen, Dust and Diamonds ran a big race to
finish second behind probable Eclipse champion Groupie Doll in the seven-furlong
Filly & Mare Sprint. In her prior start, the daughter of Vindication posted a
sharp score in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park on September
22.

Dust and Diamonds later sold for $900,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November,
just a couple of days following the Breeders’ Cup. She will now sport the colors
of Stud TNT, which transferred her to Pletcher. Her first work for the barn was
a :48 3/5 half-mile breeze at Palm Meadows last Sunday.

Romacaca was retained by Frank Calabrese after RNA’ing for $245,000 at Fasig-Tipton (Four Footed Fotos)

A Florida-bred daughter of Running Stag who has earned $866,992, Romacaca
made the first four starts of her career at Gulfstream Park early in 2009, and
is on target to make her 32nd trip to the post. The six-year-old mare comes off
a wire-to-wire victory by 1 3/4 lengths in the October 6 Indian Maid Handicap at
Hawthorne, and looms as the possible favorite in the South Beach, a 7
1/2-furlong turf test. 

Torres has ridden Romacaca in her last three starts in Chicago, winning the
Grade 3 Modesty Handicap and finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes
at Arlington Park in July and August prior to the Indian Maid.

Romacaca currently represents a one-horse stable for Miller, one of several
horsemen at Gulfstream this winter who has horses trapped at Hawthorne currently
because of the equine herpes virus outbreak first detected not long after the
Indian Maid.

“I’ve got 12 horses still up there — five of them that I was going to bring
here,” Miller said. “We don’t know when they might get out. Romacaca was
consigned to the Fasig-Tipton (November) sales but didn’t meet her reserve (when
bidding stopped at $245,000) and came back to me. She missed a couple of weeks
of training, but that won’t be a problem. She’s ready.”