Collaborate Jumps From Maiden Win to Florida Derby

A field of 11 was entered March 24 for the $750,000 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms (G1) at Xalapa, topped by one of the Triple Crown favorites in Greatest Honour.

Among the other 10 3-year-olds in the March 27 1 1/8-mile test at Gulfstream Park, there are two who are exiting a maiden win.

One of them, Quantum Leap, is listed at 20-1 in the morning line, which makes sense in Gulfstream Park's definitive and most important Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) prep.

The other, Collaborate, is priced at odds of 6-1, which says his maiden win was anything but your run-of-the-mill initial trip to the winner's circle.

A 3-year-old son of Into Mischief  owned by Three Chimneys Farm and e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, Collaborate was last seen taking his second career start in eye-opening fashion at Gulfstream as he posted a dazzling, front-running 12 1/2-length victory in a Feb. 27 mile maiden special weight test for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Thus, in the 1:36.35 it took the Three Chimneys homebred to wheel around the Hallandale Beach, Fla., oval, he changed from a big, strapping colt who was an educational fifth in his debut into a highly promising 3-year-old who will receive an early acid test against the likes of trainer Shug McGaughey's multiple graded stakes winner and 6-5 favorite Greatest Honour and grade 2 winner Spielberg, a West Coast shipper from trainer Bob Baffert's barn.

"You have to beat Greatest Honour if you want to be the best," said Bob Edwards, who races under the e Five banner. "These are the horses you have to beat in order to run in the Kentucky Derby."

Like everyone else in the field, with the exception of Courtlandt Farms' Greatest Honour, Collaborate will need at least a top three finish Saturday to have any serious hope of collecting enough points to run in the Kentucky Derby—and even a third might not be enough. A total of 170 qualifying points will be up for grabs in the Florida Derby, divided in a 100-40-20-10 fashion to the first four finishers, with 40 usually serving as enough points to run in the May 1 opening jewel of the Triple Crown.

"The plan is to run in the Kentucky Derby, so we'll have our fingers crossed," Edwards said. "He looks like he has the talent to run in the Derby. He's done everything right and keeps taking forward steps. Everything about him is professional. We're thinking there's big things for him in the future."

After breaking slowly and never threatening at six furlongs over a sloppy surface in his Feb. 6 debut, Collaborate was a much different horse in his second and most recent start when he was stretched out to a mile. Quickly guided to the lead by Tyler Gaffalione, the Into Mischief colt led by a length through fractions of :46.57 for a half-mile and 1:11.12 for six furlongs before pulling away with consummate ease in the stretch.

"On paper there were some legit horses in that maiden race and the way he won was so impressive," Edwards said. "Tyler geared him down to go past the wire. It was a phenomenal performance. He did everything right. The way he gobbled up the field and kept going without being touched with the whip was impressive to see."

Out of the Quiet American mare Quiet Temper, Collaborate was spotted at the Denali Stud consignment by Edwards and bloodstock agent Mike Ryan in 2019 at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's New York Sale of Select Yearlings. With Edwards' penchant for rounding up a partner when he buys young colts, Three Chimneys was quite agreeable to staying on board and teaming for a winning $600,000 bid.

"Mike and I saw this monster skipping around and we had them bring him out to look at him," Edwards said. "That's when we fell in love with him. He checked all the boxes. He's a big, strapping young man who looked like he can move well. He's a good-looking horse with a good mind. I only buy one or two colts and like to have partners with them so I was happy to have Three Chimneys stay on board."

Greatest Honour, a homebred son of Tapit  who will be ridden by Jose Ortiz, will be trying for a sweep of Gulfstream's three Kentucky Derby preps after winning the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) and the Feb. 27 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) to safely catapult him into the Kentucky Derby field with 60 points.

A winner of a maiden race earlier in Gulfstream's Championship Meet, Greatest Honour's victories have been enhanced by his late-running nature that flies in the face of the speed-favoring surface at Gulfstream.

"It's a speed-favoring track, and he's been running to the short pole, which works against him," said McGaughey, whose lone Florida Derby victory came in 2013 with eventual Kentucky Derby winner Orb. "When he broke his maiden, he had to run down a horse who had opened up on him. In the Holy Bull everything went right but in the Fountain of Youth Drain the Clock opened up yet we were still able to run him down, and I think Drain the Clock is a pretty good horse. To do all that over a speed-favoring track, I think that's a good mark in his favor.

"Basically, in the Holy Bull everything went right and in the Fountain of Youth everything went wrong until he turned into the stretch," he added. "He was doing something he didn't want to do in all those races so once we get him going longer it will suit him even better."

Spielberg will be the first Florida Derby starter for Baffert, a two-time Triple Crown winner. Owned by the consortium of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Golconda Stables, Siena Farm, and Robert Masterson, he's been productive in his eight starts, winning the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) and placing in three graded stakes, including two grade 1 affairs.

Most recently he was second to 2-year-old champion Essential Quality in the Feb. 27 Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park despite being unprepared for the start and racing wide throughout.

"I have all these horses and I'm going to separate them out," Baffert said about the son of Union Rags  who is 16th on the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard with 17 points. "(Spielberg) ran well at Arkansas. Broke horribly, came on, and ran second. He wasn't going to beat the winner. We'll see how he stacks up. The California horses, I think, are pretty strong. Maybe I can get lucky if I can win or run second. That would be nice. But it's a tough task. We'll give it a try."

The field also includes St. Elias Stable's Known Agenda, a Curlin  colt who won a Feb. 26 allowance optional claimer at Gulfstream by 11 lengths and defeated Greatest Honour by a head in a Nov. 8  maiden race at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by five-time Florida Derby winner Todd Pletcher, he was fifth in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) in his last effort in a stakes.

Saturday's 14-race card at Gulfstream, which begins at 11:30 a.m., features 10 stakes and a mandatory Rainbow 6 payout that culminates with the Florida Derby (6:40 p.m. post time).

Entries: Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa (G1)

Gulfstream Park, Saturday, March 27, 2021, Race 14

• Grade I
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $750,000
• 3 yo
• 6:40 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Nova Rags (KY)	Junior Alvarado	122	William I. Mott	12/1
2	2Quantum Leap (KY)	Miguel Angel Vasquez	122	Ian R. Wilkes	20/1
3	3Jirafales (FL)	Edgard J. Zayas	122	Gustavo Delgado	30/1
4	4Southern Passage (KY)	Corey J. Lanerie	122	Dale L. Romans	30/1
5	5Known Agenda (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	122	Todd A. Pletcher	5/1
6	6Sigiloso (FL)	Leonel Reyes	122	Antonio Sano	30/1
7	7Greatest Honour (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	122	Claude R. McGaughey III	6/5
8	8Soup and Sandwich (FL)	John R. Velazquez	122	Mark E. Casse	20/1
9	9Collaborate (KY)	Tyler Gaffalione	122	Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.	6/1
10	10Spielberg (KY)	Javier Castellano	122	Bob Baffert	4/1
11	11Papetu (KY)	Emisael Jaramillo	122	Antonio Sano	15/1