Can Sweet Catomine Follow Winning Colors?
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Greg Melikov
Apr 4, 2005
There's a filly in the mix for the Kentucky Derby. Sweet Catomine will attempt to duplicate the feat of Winning Colors 17 years ago.
Both won the Santa Anita Oaks. Winning Colors whipped the boys in the 1988 Santa Anita Derby. She was only the third filly in 68 years to beat the boys, joining Ciencia in '39 and Silver Spoon in '59.
It remains to be seen if Sweet Catomine can defeat the males in the $750,000 race on Saturday. If she does, it's on to Churchill Downs where Winning Colors became the third filly to triumph.
I remember a decade ago when all the talk was about another outstanding female. Serena's Song showed promise in the '94 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies when she battled Flanders, losing to her stablemate by a head. Sweet Catomine had no trouble capturing the '04 edition.
Serena's Song first beat the boys in the Blue Grass Stakes, Thunder Gulch, following his Florida Derby victory, finished fourth. But on Derby Day, Thunder Gulch roared to an impressive win while Serena's Song, sent off as a favored entry after setting a blazing pace, ran 16th.
No horse that captured the Santa Anita Derby has won the Kentucky Derby since Sunday Silence in '89. However, six of the last 11 that hit the board did.
Sweet Catomine will face the runner-up and the next three finishers in the San Felipe Stakes: Giacomo, also third in the Sham; Don't Get Mad, second in the San Vicente; Wilko, Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner; and Golden Shine, who earlier captured an allowance contest; plus Buzzards Bay, third in the El Camino Real Derby, and General John B, winner of the Turf Paradise Derby.
In another major prep on Saturday, the top four finishers in the Gotham Stakes meet in the Wood Memorial: Survivalist, second in the Tampa Bay Derby; Galloping Grocer, fourth in the Whirlaway Stakes; Naughty New York, second in the Whirlaway; and Pavo, disqualified from second to fourth in the Gotham.
The field will include Going Wild, runner-up in the Santa Catalina, and Bellamy Road, another Nick Zito-trained colt who crushed allowance foes by more than 15 lengths in his 3-year-old debut.
Only two winners of this race since Seattle Slew's victory in '77 got to smell the roses -- Fusaichi Pegasus, '00, and Pleasant Colony, '81. However, Monarchos, second in '01, won at Churchill Downs.
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