BackTrack: Needles Sets Track Record in Florida Derby

The Florida Derby was Needles' first start since his victory in Hialeah Park's colorful Flamingo Stakes on February 25. Trainer Hugh Fontaine brought the colt up to the Derby with workouts of 6 furlongs (1:13 1/5 breezing) on March 13, 9 furlongs (1:56 3/5, breezing) on March 17, and 5 furlongs (1:03, breezing) on March 21.

After the Derby, in which his colt set a track record of 1:48 3/5 for the 9 furlongs, Fontaine said there wouldn't be any more racing for the son of Ponder until the Kentucky Derby on May 5.

"He's not a good shipper," Fontaine said. "We plan to rest him here a couple of weeks, and then ship him right to Churchill Downs. A few workouts will be all he'll need."

The slow, deliberate type of campaign is in the same style which Fontaine followed last year. At 2 Needles ran 10 races from March 29 at Gulfstream Park to October 29 at Garden State Park. Except for a 7-day interval between his first and second starts, there never was less than 14 days between races. His longest layoff last year was between victories on April 20 at Gulfstream and June 22 at Monmouth Park.

Still enjoying a 5-pound gift by virtue of the fact that he was foaled in Florida, Needles was made a 17-10 favorite by the Gulfstream Park bettors, and there were 8,341 fewer of them than had shown up to see Nashua perform the previous week. He gave his supporters a few anxious moments while he dawdled along far back of the pace for the early running, and it wasn't until the stretch turn was approached that he set out for the leaders. He got to Count Chic in the last sixteenth, and went under the wire with a three-quarter-length margin. His style was reminiscent of his sire's, which also enjoyed coming from far behind.

After the race jockey Dave Erb told the Louisville Courier-Journal's Jerry McNerney: "I know they say he's a sulker, but it's just that Needles gets set on what he wants to do, and he wants to do it his way ...That doesn't mean that he quite rates himself. He kinda gradually makes his move. If I think it's too early, I hold him a little. If it's the right time, I let him go."

None of the colts which finished behind Needles appeared to have much excuse, and no one tried to invent any. With the exception of the California colt, Count Chic, there was little for the other owners to cheer about. Count Chic had moved boldly on the far turn, and jockey Willie Boland later said, "When I got the lead in the stretch, I thought I was going to win it."

By Count Speed out of an unplaced Chicuelo mare, Count Chic was claimed last year for $6,500 by Dino A. Lozzi, a Seattle restaurant owner. He had been off and on at the recent Santa Anita Park meeting, where his victory in the San Miguel Stakes and his good second in the San Felipe Handicap had marked him as one with promise. On the basis of his race in the Florida Derby, nearly everyone was willing to admit he seemed to be the second-best 3-year-old in Florida right now. He, too, has a schedule which calls for the Kentucky Derby; but, unlike Needles, he undoubtedly will race in Kentucky before the big spring classic.

Should Needles win the Kentucky Derby he would be the second winner whose sire and paternal grandsire also had won the Derby. Ponder's Derby was in 1949, and Pensive won in 1944. The only other such line is Reigh Count (1928), Count Fleet (1943), and Count Turf (1951).

One other parallel: Needles was one of 5 foals in the first crop by Ponder, and Ponder was one of 6 foals in the first crop of Pensive. Needles is the second foal of his dam, Noodle Soup, and Ponder was the first foal of Miss Rushin.

Calumet Farm, however, had expected a little more of Ponder than Jack Dudley and Bonnie Heath are asking of Needles. Although lightly campaigned at 2, Ponder ran 8 races the next year before the Kentucky Derby.