Florida Derby

Um, she's campaigned horses here in the States.

You know, we won the Florida Derby years ago with Take Charge Indy, so she's, she's had horses in the Kentucky Derby, but, you know, this was something different and, you know, we, we thought very highly of the experience we've had over there.

Um, so, you know, it was just one of those, she wanted to get her feet wet and came over, and that was the, uh, the first horse she purchased.

And, um, it's taken her to some, uh, pretty fun races so far.

And you look at that time form US Pace Projector, there is other speed in this race, particularly the last horse we're gonna get to that could be a real thorn in the side of Talktomejimmy on the front end.

Curious to get your thoughts here on the six, The Puma, a horse that showed a lot of talent, won the Tampa Bay Derby, came back, nosed out in the Florida Derby behind Commandment.

He needed time to regroup, so he missed all of the Triple Crown races.

And now, looking at the Haskell and the Travers, he's been fourth best.

But I'm saying just that idea that your horse can do that and make you that much money, but not actually win one of the bigger races.

Well, yeah, in 76, he wins the Florida Derby, the Flamingo Stakes, the Traverse Stakes, the Bluegrass Stakes.

But when it counts, the Kentucky Derby, he finishes second to Bull Forbes.

And that's why Bull Forbes got the three-year-old of the year because of that.

But I would roll with the Puma, 8-1.

Scratch from the Derby, however, I believe did win the Tampa Bay Derby and finished second, I believe, in the Florida Derby.

But the other thing I like, he gets Javier Castellanos.

He has won this race seven times.

And you know, Mike, this was a horse when I was making the line for this race, I was hearing a lot of buzz about Silent Tactics sort of being the horse that you wanted, one of these prep races that didn't win.

But as I pulled the PPs, I was thinking to myself, "I bet a lot of people are gonna take a second look at The Puma." The horse who wasn't getting a whole lot of buzz coming into this race, and that's why I made him eight to one when you might have thought he would be a bigger price on my line because he pulled the PPs, Mike, and he's got one of the highest speed figures in this race, the 100 Beyer from his narrow loss in the Florida Derby.

Coming into the Kentucky Derby off that, he was on a lot of people's short lists as one of the top contenders for that race, obviously forced to miss it with an issue.

So he came into the Haskell over l- with less than ideal preparation.

Then when I saw him, I kind of just sort of blew past him [laughs] at the beginning.

By the time I was done with the race, um, I was way more interested in The Puma, 'cause all the things you said about him are correct.

He, you know, obviously was very progressive, um, earlier in the year, and unfortunately for him, he didn't make it past the Florida Derby.

Um, his Haskell wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.