Tamarando Takes El Camino Real Derby

Tamarando overhauled Dance With Fate to win the El Camino Read Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields (Photos by Vassar Photography)
Grade 1 winner Tamarando solidified his credentials as one of the top West Coast 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail with a last-to-first win in the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.
The dark bay or brown Bertrando colt trailed the eight-horse field through three-quarters of a mile in the 1 1/8-mile race. He launched his winning rally on the far turn under Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze.
Tamarando swept into the stretch and accelerated eagerly under Baze, picking off opponents one by one until finally reeling in game runner-up Dance With Fate near the finish line.
Tamarando won the Grade 3 El Camino Real by a half-length as the 2.30-to-1 second betting choice for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. He completed the 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.23 on Golden Gate’s synthetic Tapeta Footings surface and covered the final eighth of a mile is about 11 seconds — very fast for the distance.
Baze won the El Camino Real Derby for the fourth time and Hollendorfer picked up his third win in the race. The two teamed to win the El Camino Real Derby with Chocolate Candy in 2009.
The consistent Tamarando has finished in the top three in all but one of his 10 career starts. He won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs and the 1 1/16-mile Real Quiet Stakes last year as a 2-year-old. He has earned $625,120 with four wins, two seconds and three third-place finishes for owners-breeders Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Williams.
Enterprising, the 1.30-to-1 favorite under Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens, took command entering the stretch but could not match strides with Dance With Fate and faded to finish third.
With the win, Tamarando earned 10 points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby scoring system to move into a fourth-place tie with Tapiture and Midnight Hawk with 12 points.
Tamarando is a half-brother (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to stakes winners Luckarack and U’narack. His dam is the winning Dehere mare Tamarack Bay, who finished second in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes in 2002.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
TAMARANDO FINISHED STRONGLY TO WIN THE EL CAMINO REAL DERBY

Photo by Vassar Photography