Tampa Derby: 50 points to the winner will be more then he deserves
The 2017 running of the Tampa Derby will be run on Saturday for a purse of $350,000 and 50 points towards the Kentucky Derby.
Ten have been entered to go in the G2 event at 1 1/16 miles and will be led by Tapwrit who was second in the G3 Sam Davis here in his last start on February 11.
Tapwrit is a two-time winner that broke his maiden in a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight last November going 1 mile. And then returned a month later to take a $75K overnight in the slop.
State of Honor, who wore blinkers for the first time in the Sam Davis while setting all the pace, returns for what will be only his third career start on dirt. He’s a son of To Honor and Serve that has only one win from eight starts. He’ll have company on the front-end this time around and will have to improve “bigly” to get home first in here.
No Dozing will be making his second start off a 3 month layoff after finishing 6th in the Sam Davis. He won his first two career starts last fall before finishing fourth behind Classic Empire, who subsequently went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In the Remsen, No Dozing was second behind Mo Town at 1 1/8 miles. And if anyone has the right to “wake up” it’s this guy but he’ll have to do it in here if he wants to make the Derby field because this is an easy spot.
Another to keep an eye on is Beasley who’ll be making his first graded stakes start off back to back seconds in OC$75K NW1x. He’s the son of Shackleford and you can expect him to be part of the pace from the start.
All-in-all this is a weak bunch and further demonstrates the overall strength, or lack thereof, of this year’s crop of 3 year old Kentucky Derby hopefuls.
Free past performances for the Tampa Derby
