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Road to the Triple Crown: Talent-rich Florida

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 6:26 PM

FIRST DUDE

PhotosByZ.com/Thoroughbred Times

by Jeff Lowe

Big efforts from First Dude and Jackson Bend in the Preakness Stakes (G1) enhanced an already stellar season for Florida-bred three-year-olds.

First Dude was the game runner-up behind Lookin At Lucky in the Preakness, and Jackson Bend followed another head back in third.

Two other Florida-breds, Aikenite and Pleasant Prince, were in the Preakness field. A fifth Florida-bred Preakness hopeful, The Cliff’s Edge Derby Trial Stakes (G3) winner Hurricane Ike, was a late defection because of injury.

Jackson Bend also ran in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) with fellow Florida-breds Line of David and Backtalk. D’ Funnybone, another three-year-old from the Sunshine State, collected a pair of Grade 2 wins this year.

“It’s a pretty interesting group of horses,” said Dick Hancock, executive vice president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association. “These two, First Dude and Jackson Bend, are both homebreds, which is really nice to see. I saw First Dude break his maiden down at Gulfstream Park, and God he looked awesome. You knew he was going to be a nice horse, but this was an unexpected pleasure.”

In 2009, Advice (Derby) and Big Drama (Preakness) were the only Florida-breds to compete in the Triple Crown series.

The previous year, four horses from Florida accounted for six starts in the Triple Crown. This year’s group has already exceeded both 2008 and ’09 by individual Florida-bred Triple Crown starters, with the Belmont Stakes (G1) yet to come on June 5. First Dude will be one of the Belmont headliners, representing owner-breeder Donald Dizney and trainer Dale Romans.

Racing Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito plans to give Jackson Bend some rest instead of pushing him on to the Belmont.

Jackson Bend is truly a Florida product. He is from the first crop of Fred and Jane Brei’s stallion Hear No Evil, and the Breis race him in partnership with Robert LaPenta.

Last fall, LaPenta purchased his interest once Jackson Bend completed a sweep of the Florida Stallion Stakes series at Calder Race Course. He posted his first stakes win last July over D’ Funnybone in the Frank Gomez Memorial Stakes at Calder.

D’ Funnybone followed with dominant victories in the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course and Futurity Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park.

“I’ve been here ten years and this was as deep of a three-year-old crop as I have seen down here,” said Mike Compton, editor in chief of Florida Horse magazine. “We had Silver Charm and Captain Bodgit go one-two in the Derby in 1997 and Afleet Alex and Closing Argument hit the board in 2005, but nothing like this, where we have so many nice three-year-olds.”

The dozen other Belmont candidates are all Kentucky-breds, including Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box and Dwyer Stakes (G2) winner Fly Down for Zito.

Andrew Byrnes, stakes coordinator for the New York Racing Association, listed Dublin, First Dude, Game On Dude, Make Music for Me, New Madrid, Setsuko, Spangled Star, Stately Victor, and Uptowncharlybrown as possible for the 1 ½-mile classic.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer