A Twisted Trail to Triple Crown

The progression of 3-year-olds toward the Triple Crown is beginning to look like a chess match as Eastern stables disperse from Florida and West Coast horsemen begin to look east in search of the best, least-taxing route to Louisville, Ky.

The ever-increasing number of options available to trainers preparing horses for the Triple Crown demands that they jockey for position. The road to the Derby meanders hither and yon these days. It has even brought a brand-name, if slightly off-course, colt to Turfway Park in Kentucky.

Summer Squall’s winter was marked alarmingly by a pulmonary bleeding episode in a workout at Gulfstream. It sharply set back his training and delayed his return to competition until March 17, when he ran a strong second to the very fast sprinter Housebuster in the 7-furlong Swale Stakes.

Justifiably encouraged by the effort, trainer Neil Howard is bound for Saturday’s $500,000 Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway, in which Summer Squall will face two turns and 9 furlongs for the first time. Howard has chosen the Beam-Blue Grass course to Louisville for the Dogwood Stable colt, and that may be the path of least resistance.

Yonder will start in the Beam, but he has not raced since his disappointing performance in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and may not, even at his best, be up to a sharp Summer Squall. Shot Gun Scott, surprise winner of the Fountain of Youth, is also in the cast.

Otherwise, a handful of local horses and a California shipper or two trying to avoid Mister Frisky will flesh out the Beam.

If Howard is attempting to avoid as much stress as possible en route to the Kentucky Derby, Howie Tesher, who trains the undefeated New York-bred Champagneforashley, is turning it into an art form.

Tesher waited until March 18 and sent Champagneforashley from Gulfstream Park to Tampa Bay Downs for his first start of the season. The spot he chose was more difficult than anyone anticipated, and Champagneforashley’s prerace misbehavior only complicated matters, but the colt remained undefeated with a remarkable, if taxing, effort. A bout with colic followed, understandable considering the stress of his first race since December.

After the Tampa Bay Derby, Tesher said that he was considering either the April 7 Preview Stakes at Gulfstream or the Gotham at Aqueduct the same day, then the April 21 Wood Memorial.

Later, he eliminated the Preview as an option and on Monday Tesher announced that Champagneforashley will make his next start not in the Gotham, but in the April 13 DeWitt Clinton Handicap, which is restricted to New York-breds and run at 7 furlongs. Tesher will saddle Champagneforashley eight days later for the Wood Memorial, then move on to Kentucky.

The focus in the West is a good deal sharper. Mister Frisky--undefeated, untied and unscored upon in 15 races in Puerto Rico and California--is going to the April 7 Santa Anita Derby. Tarascon, who finished second to Mister Frisky in the San Vicente, then won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, remains in Arkansas. Burnt Hills, who defeated the since-injured Grand Canyon in July in a maiden race at Hollywood Park and won the Bolsa Chica Stakes in February, is going to New York for the Gotham.

There has been no competition in California for Mister Frisky in his two races this winter, and there appears to be little forthcoming. If he stays 9 furlongs in the Santa Anita Derby and does not begin to show the strain of having run in 16 races in the last 12 months, he will arrive in Louisville as a formidable favorite to win the Derby.