NEWS

Red-hot Take the Points stars
in Hollywood Derby

Posted: Friday, November 27, 2009 4:33 PM

TAKE THE POINTS

Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo

by Tim Nichols

Starlight Partners’ Take the Points seems to have found his calling since making the switch to turf in June, winning two of four subsequent starts on grass.

The three-year-old Even the Score colt will gun for his third turf win and third straight Grade 1 triumph on Sunday when he faces 11 three-year-olds in the $300,000 Hollywood Derby (G1) at Hollywood Park.

After finishing a 13th in the BlackBerry Preakness Stakes (G1), Take the Points was shifted to the turf by trainer Todd Pletcher and posted a fourth-place finish behind Battle of Hastings (GB) in the Colonial Turf Cup Stakes (G2) on June 20 at Colonial Downs.

Take the Points subsequently finished third, three-quarters of a length behind winner Battle of Hastings in the Virginia Derby (G2) before breaking through with wins in the Secretariat Stakes (G1) on August 8 at Arlington Park and the Jamaica Handicap (G1) on October 10 at Belmont Park.

Squaring off against Take the Points is an accomplished field that features familiar foe Battle of Hastings. Michael House’s Royal Applause (GB) gelding finished second by a head to Hollywood Derby entrant The Usual Q. T. in the Oak Tree Derby (G2) on November 7.

The Usual Q. T. will try to extend his winning streak to five as he makes his Grade 1 debut.

Group 2 winner Black Bear Island (Ire) will break from the rail under Joe Talamo for trainer Julio Canani. The Sadler’s Wells colt finished second to Take the Points in the Secretariat in his North American debut. He enters off a sixth-place finish in an optional claiming race on October 7 at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita Park meet.

Straight Story, runner-up in the Jamaica, Virginia Derby, and Colonial Turf Cup, will try to finally break through in a graded stakes on Saturday. Richard Santulli’s Giant’s Causeway colt finished second in four of his five previous starts.

Other entrants include Saranac Stakes (G3) winner Al Khali, Calder Derby (G3) winner Sal the Barber, and La Jolla Handicap (G2) winner Meteore.

Tim Nichols is internet content editor of Thoroughbred Times

Hollywood Derby