Dollase Tries Familiar Angle at Super Derby

The sire-son angle worked for trainer Wally Dollase at Saratoga, and today at Louisiana Downs he hopes Ten Most Wanted and his shadow, Deputy Commander, can strike again.

Last month, with Empire Maker and Funny Cide on the sideline, Dollase saddled Ten Most Wanted to win the $1-million Travers, the same race that the colt’s sire, Deputy Commander, had won six years before. Deputy Commander also won the Super Derby in Bossier City, La., in 1997, and Ten Most Wanted is the 4-5 morning-line favorite in today’s $500,000 installment, which drew five other horses.

A win in the Super Derby would send Ten Most Wanted and his 11 owners into the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

Second choice at 8-5 in the Super Derby is Soto, who extended his unbeaten string to five races when he beat Dynever by a neck in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 9. Ramon Dominguez, who has won 324 races in his battle with Russell Baze for the national title, will ride Soto and Pat Day, who has been aboard Ten Most Wanted for his Illinois Derby and Travers wins, has the mount today.

The other four starters -- Kool Humor, Zydeco Affair, Crowned King and Taxicat -- are local horses who ran in the Prelude Stakes at Louisiana Downs on Aug. 30. Kool Humor, after running next to last in the Haskell at Monmouth Park, won the Prelude by two lengths.

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Jerry Bailey, who has a choice between two horses in next Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, will ride Empire Maker instead of Moon Ballad. Empire Maker, winner of the Florida Derby, the Wood Memorial and the Belmont, has given Bailey three of his 20 Grade I winners this year, helping Bailey match the record set by Mike Smith in 1994. Bailey has won 54 stakes overall, which leaves him 14 short of that Smith record, also set in ’94. Moon Ballad, winner of the Dubai World Cup in March, has had a ninth-place finish and two fifths since then, all on grass. He has won three of four dirt starts going into the Gold Cup ....

Volponi, winless since last year’s upset in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will use the same prep for this year’s race -- the Meadowlands Cup on Oct. 3. ... Tizdubai, a full-sister to Tiznow, winner of the Classic in 2000-01, has fractured an ankle and won’t run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Tizdubai, undefeated in two starts, broke her maiden at Hollywood Park and won the Sorrento at Del Mar. ... Laffit Pincay’s attorney, Neil Papiano, indicated in April that there would be legal action resulting from the jockey’s career-ending spill on March 1, and Friday he told Blood-Horse magazine that a lawsuit would be filed next week. The defendants, according to the report, will be Santa Anita, an ambulance service and a doctor’s assistant in the track’s first-aid room.... Funny Cide’s second workout since his Travers scratch was a :58 4/5 five furlongs at Belmont.