Deputy Glitters Upsets Blue Grass Cat in Tampa Bay Derby
by Ultimatecapper.com Horse Handicapper Kenneth Strong
March 18, 2006 - Deputy Glitters may have proved he belongs on the 2006 Kentucky Derby trail with a decisive two-length victory over underlay favorite Blue Grass Cat in Saturday's $250,000 Tampa Bay Derby-G3 - but we'll need to see one more race from him to make sure.
Ridden by Jose Lezcano, Deputy Glitters pressed the pace from the outside through fractions of 24.30, 49.29 and 1:13.43, moved to challenge pacesetter Winnies Tigger Too on the final turn after a mile in 1:37.84 and shook that one into the stretch, drawing off to win by two lengths over a hanging Blue Grass Cat, who easily took the place by 3 ¼ lengths over Winnies Tigger Too. The final time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth over the fast track was 1:44.26.
The winner, trained by Tom Albertrani, paid $18.80, 3.40, $2.10 across the board as an overlay and pushed his career earnings to $201,798 from a lifetime record of 2-1-0 in six starts.
Coming into the race off a 63-1 second place finish to Blue Grass Cat in the Sam F Davis Stakes on February 18, in which he was beaten only 1-¼ lengths, Deputy Glitters should have been 7/2 or less in the Tampa Bay Derby - not the 8-1 third choice. And considering Tom Albertrani's trainer statistics, he probably should have been even lower odds. Albertrani has an incredible win percentage of 44 percent clip and that includes a 38 percent win rate in graded stakes for a positive ROI of 7.32 - pretty amazing stats.
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And according to Albertrani, Deputy Glitters didn't really like sprinting. Well, he certainly loves routing, and he proved he doesn't need the lead to win. His only previous win had come way back in September 2005, when he defeated a filed of $65,000 claiming maidens at Saratoga.
As wonderful as Deputy Glitters victory in the Tampa Bay Derby was for Joseph Lacombe Stable Inc., runner-up Blue Grass Cat probably had a bit of an excuse. He was four-wide throughout and appeared to labor when trying to put together his rally. While other horses did win from the outside that day, the wide trip coupled with a track he couldn't get a hold of did undoubtedly work against Blue Grass Cat. Still, you have to think a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender would have been able to overcome these obstacles - especially when the quality of the Tampa Bay Derby field seemed average at best.
Deputy Glitter's next start will be in either the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes-G1 at Keeneland on April 15 or in the $750,000 Wood Memorial-G1 on April 8 at Aqueduct.
Either race will be a stern test of class for the bay colt by Deputy Commander-Glitters by Glitterman.
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