Creative Cause will take on Santa Anita Derby rivals without blinkers
Heinz Steinmann’s 3-year-old colt, Creative Cause, is right up there with the early favourites of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, and in all of his seven career starts Mike Harrington trained colt has worn blinkers, and with blinkers on he has landed 4 wins in seven starts, and in the rest never finished worse than third.
Now, it has been decided by Mike Harrington that Creative Cause will run the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby without blinkers. The 1 1/8 mile dirt test at Santa Anita Park has reeled in 11, 3-year-old colts and geldings to run on 7 April, 2012.
“He got to wandering down the stretch and hasn’t been really focused,” Harrington said of Creative Cause. The Kentucky bred son of Giant’s Causeway, out of mare Dream of Summer by Siberian Summer, Creative Cause kicked off the 2012 season with a third place finish in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes to winner, Drill, at about seven furlongs over Santa Anita Park’s dirt course on 19 February, 2012.
The 3-year-old is coming off an emphatic victory in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, where he was stretched out in distance to 1 1/16 miles, where he showed that he can rate and come off pace as he downed, Bodemeister, in the stretch to win the race in 1 minute and 41.84 seconds.
“He came out a little heavy for the San Vicente, but we wanted that,” Harrington said of Creative Cause. “He was going to have a long, arduous journey ahead and I didn’t want him going into his first start light.”
Mike Harrington further went on to say about the Santa Anita Derby, “You always want to win, but we’re looking at the race as a steppingtone to the (Kentucky Derby). I don’t want him to leave his race trying to win the Santa Anita Derby.”
Creative Cause has been run down by Bob Baffert’s runners and sometimes he has finished on top of Baffert’s runners recently, but he face a triple threat from the trainer in the Santa Anita Derby in the shape of Paynter, Liaison, and Blueskiesnrainbows.
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