America's Best Racing. The Jockey Club.

Dynamic Sky won the Simcoe Stakes last fall at Woodbine before shipping to Keeneland for the Dixiana Breeders' Futurity (G1). Photo Courtesy of Michael Burns/Woodbine Entertainment Group.

Dynamic Sky had the look of a promising runner when finishing second in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland Race Course last October. This blog carried words of wisdom surrounding his performance, and put the son of Sky Mesa on our watch list. In that effort on the synthetic Polytrack surface, Dynamic Sky went 77 feet more than rail-riding Joha, but was only beaten by a length. An extra 77 feet equates to roughly nine lengths of added ground. That insight was applied in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, suggesting that a better trip would get the Mark Casse trainee in the mix. Dynamic Sky did not cover as wide a trip at Santa Anita, but was mixed about when Capo Bastone ran on late, yielding the rarely seen “herded” comment in his running line. 

Casse gave Dynamic Sky a month off when shifting his base down to Florida and emerged in Saturday’s Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Coupled with stablemate Sky Commander, Dynamic Sky was well drawn, saved ground, angled out behind the heels of Sky Commander, and ran on to win, defeating his barn companion. This race was a classic example where focusing on saving ground or ground loss is probably an unnecessary application. The visual performance of Dynamic Sky being bottled up behind horses, swinging across three of them in order to gain clear running, and then accelerating away told the story. 

Passing the quarter pole, Dynamic Sky was about eight feet off the inner rail and a furlong later, was 17.2 feet off the rail, suggesting the significant shifting by jockey Luis Contreras to get his mount clear in the stretch. Upon finding daylight, Dynamic Sky lengthened and ran the final furlong in 12.58 seconds, 0.35 seconds faster than Sky Commander.  The full sectional times for each horse are listed below.

The road to the first Saturday in May is a long one, but Dynamic Sky made the path through Tampa a bit more interesting with a solid effort, and he showed he was significantly better than his competition, especially late in the race. The Sam F. Davis (G3) on February 2 is a very likely next spot.

CUMMINGS IS TAKING A CHANCE ON DYNAMIC SKY IN THE DERBY FUTURES POOL

Gulfstream Park – Fort Lauderdale Stakes

Mucho Mas Macho rallied from well off the pace to land a 41-1 shocker in the Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream. Whenever seeing these types of late moves, it’s always intriguing to review the closing sectional times to see just how fast a horse was actually covering the trip. The Henry Collazo trainee came home with a final quarter in 23.08 seconds and a final eighth in 11.48 seconds, both the fastest times for each distance. Vertiformer, who finished seventh, was the next fastest in both splits after racing in another area code early. Nikki’s Sandcastle, the 2-1 favorite, could only manage fourth after seeking his third consecutive win. He covered 23 feet more than Mucho Mas Macho and was defeated by just 1 ¼ lengths. The extra ground equates to approximately 2.7 lengths.

Santa Anita - San Fernando Stakes

Fed Biz led from the break in a local Santa Anita Handicap (G1) prep on Saturday and just lasted to defeat Steve Asmussen’s pesky Tritap. The final margin was just a head, but Tritap did cover the equivalent of 2 ½ lengths more than the winner. 

FED BIZ WON A CHALLENGING SAN FERNANDO OVER TRITAP

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