Dialed In Impressive In Holy Bull Victory

Dialed In came from well off the pace to score an impressive victory yesterday in the Grade III $400,000  Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The race was Florida's first prep race for the Kentucky Derby and traveled one-mile around one turn on dirt. Sweet Ducky and Gourmet Dinner rounded out the top three finishers, respectively. With the victory, Dialed In virtually secured a spot in the Kentucky Derby as he banked $240,000 to move to 10th in the graded stakes standings.

Dialed In settled well off the pace in the early going of the Holy Bull, trailing by as much as 10 lengths on the backstretch, while the pace setters went three-wide up front. Black N Beauty ran to the front along the rail but had Leave of Absence and Mucho Macho Man right outside of him as the three horses ran into the far turn. As Leave of Absence dropped off the lead, Gourmet Dinner and Sweet Ducky arrived towards the front, trailing Black N Beauty and Mucho Macho Man in the turn. As the field turned for home, it was just a matter of time before Dialed In hit the front. Shooting like a rocket down the rail, Dialed In swung outside to go four-wide as Sweet Ducky and Gourmet Dinner began separating themselves from Black N Beauty and Mucho Macho Man. Sweet Ducky took the lead with just over a furlong to go, but he was no match for Dialed In, who won the race by just over a length. Watch the race replay below:



With the win, Dialed In moved himself into 10th on the graded stakes standings for the Kentucky Derby and will most likely start in the field of 20 based on this result alone. Sweet Ducky also cracked the top 20 with his second place finish, as he sits 19th with $120,000 and will probably need one or two more in-the-money finishes to secure his place in the Derby.

It will be interesting to watch Dialed In in the coming months as he preps for the Derby. Proven around one turn, I'm interested to see how trainer Nicholas Zito will want to run Dialed In in future races. It seemed like the closing trip worked for him this time, but I'm personally a little skeptical that the strategy will work against a 20 horse field. It is horse racing though and I have been proven wrong many, many times before!

This weekend we will see Gulfstream Park hold another graded stakes race for three-year-olds that could effect the Derby standings. On Sunday, the Grade II $100,000 Hallandale Beach Stakes will be run over one mile and one sixteenth on turf. A $60,000 top prize will be available to the winner, which will no doubt go a long way for several of the horses who are nominated. You can view the full nomination list here and the field will likely be drawn on Thursday or Friday.

Posted in: Triple Crown