Trainer Patrick Byrne will be looking to ring in 2014 with
Almost Famous in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Derby, the one-mile New Year’s
Day feature at the Hallandale Beach, Florida, venue.
Owned by Chuck and Maribeth Sandford, the son of Unbridled’s Song
stamped himself as a colt with a future in winning two of his three starts this
fall, including a six-length success under optional claiming conditions at
Churchill Downs on November 9.
The dark bay colt was entered in the Grade 2 Kentucky
Jockey Club under the Twin Spires three weeks later, but was an
11th-hour scratch out of that event with a bruised hind hoof.
Almost Famous, a $500,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton sale
last March, got back on the worktab with a four-furlong breeze in :48 2/5
at Palm Meadows on Thursday.
“He put in a nice work,” Byrne said. “I lost a couple of
days with him when I had to scratch out of the Jockey Club in Kentucky, but he’s
back and his foot is good.
“The Gulfstream Park Derby is a good spot for him,” the conditioner added. “It wasn’t originally in my plans, but he’s acting like he wants to run
and he’s doing well.”
Byrne, who became a household name in the late nineties
with Breeders’ Cup winners Awesome Again, Countess Diana and Favorite Trick, won
the 2012 Florida Derby for the Sandfords with Take Charge Indy. That
$1 million event could be on the radar for Almost Famous as well.
“We’ll take it one race at a time, but obviously the
(Grade 1) Florida Derby (on March 29) would be a nice target, and we’ll go from there,” Byrne remarked.
“Gulfstream is always a tough meeting.”
Trainer Mark Casse issued an upbeat bulletin about a trio of juvenile colts
in his Palm Meadows barn on Sunday as well.
Two of them, Coastline and Awesome
Sky, are owned by John Oxley, while Conquest Titan carries the colors of Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stable. Both Coastline and Conquest Titan
under consideration for the Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull on January 25, while
Awesome Sky will be looking for a softer spot.
A troubled fifth as the favorite in his second start in a
Churchill Downs maiden on November 7, the gray colt rallied to finish third in
the Kentucky Jockey Club at the Louisville oval on November 30.
Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com