Dialed In guaranteed himself a spot in the starting gate for the 2011 Kentucky Derby after closing from well back to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on Sunday afternoon. Shackleford ran a huge race to finish 2nd at 50/1, while To Honor and Serve and Flashpoint finished 3rd and 4th. Soldat was off-the-board in a hugely disappointing performance.
Dialed In, trained by Nick Zito and ridden by Julien Leparoux, is a three-year-old son of Mineshaft out of a Storm Cat mare (Miss Doolittle).
Result Chart (via DRF.com)
Fractions:
1/4: 23.30
1/2: 46.35
3/4: 1:10.63
Mile: 1:36.38
Finiah: 1:50.07
Dialed In's internal splits (via Formulator Interactive Charts)
1/4: 24.85
1/2: 23.31
3/4: 23.67
Mile: 25.17
Finish: 13.09
Somewhat similar to his win in the Holy Bull, Dialed In ran his fastest split in the 2nd quarter. Unlike the Holy Bull, he didn't come home in :12 and change. Of course, the goal is to run your best race in the Kentucky Derby, not the final prep, so perhaps his allowance win against older and this Florida Derby provide a foundation he can build off on the first Saturday in May.
As for major disappointments, it's hard not to have serious misgivings with Soldat at this point. He's looked so good in his previous starts this spring you wonder if something was physically wrong with him today. Soldat's 4th quarter internal split was 26.02 with a final 1/8th of a mile in 14.67 - brutally slow for a horse with serious Derby aspirations.
I'm not sure what happened to the speed we saw from Flashpoint in the Hutcheson, but when he didn't make the lead going into the first turn the race was all but over for him.
Video Replay (via GulfstreamParkRacing YouTube channel)
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