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Horse racing

Experience gets de-emphasized

Triple Crown hopefuls have entered the past several springs with less and less experience.

Such valuable commodities, so the thinking goes, should be coddled until the final push for the Kentucky Derby. A season-ending injury, such as the one sustained by 2-year-old champion Vindication, offers validation to the theory.

Indy Dancer, likely a favorite in the Grade III Risen Star Stakes on Sunday in New Orleans, enters his 3-year-old campaign with just two minor races (both victories) but heaps of promise because of his sire, A.P. Indy.

Though trainer Todd Pletcher said weather and fitness determined Indy Dancer's 2-year-old schedule, a cautious approach might have merit.

"I think over the years, people have found that every time you lead them over there," he said, "especially when you do it closely together, you can take something out of these horses."

Indy Dancer's entry in the Risen Star leaves Conservation, Midway Cat, Offlee Wild, Ozzie Cat, Spite the Devil, Ten Cents a Shine, Trust N Luck and Whywhywhy as the likely field in the Grade I $200,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes, one of the season's first major preps, at Gulfstream Park.

Pletcher said he was tempted to enter Indy Dancer in the Fountain of Youth when another prospect, Bham, was scratched but decided to stick with his original plan.

"I think it's a little bit more of a gradual step into stakes competition," Pletcher said of the 1 1/16-mile Risen Star. "I think with his running style, he comes from way out of it, I think the long stretch ... will suit him well. The track in the last couple of weeks has gotten fairly speed-favoring at Gulfstream. And I didn't think that would be in his best interests."

GET ME IN: Pletcher led all trainers with 28 nominations for the Triple Crown series but knows he will be fortunate to have a few ready for the Derby.

"When you make those nominations ... you're trying to project things that will happen four or five months down the road," Pletcher said. "It's so hard just to project what will happen in the next week. We (nominate) more as precaution. You have nightmares about a horse that comes up to the process and not being nominated."

Three-year-olds can be nominated for $600 during the first of three entry periods. The price is $6,000 from Jan. 19-March 29. After that, it rises to $150,000.

A record 446 3-year-olds (422 colts, 19 geldings and five fillies) were nominated before Jan. 18.

NOT IN: While many owners, dreaming of glory or money, force promising colts onto Triple Crown pathes for which they are unsuited, a Tampa-based outfit has taken a patient approach with the star of its five-horse stable.

C.T. Stable, owned by local radio personality Chris Thomas, and trainer Richard Ciardullo Jr. are banking on a long career as a sprinter for Super Fuse, not instant gratification or heartbreak.

Thomas, therefore, did not nominate the 3-year-old for the Triple Crown series and pulled out of the Grade II, 7-furlong Hutcheson Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream in favor of the 6-furlong Best Turn stakes Feb. 22 at Aqueduct because the colt had not performed well at Gulfstream.

Ciardullo said he and Thomas understood the $38,000 colt's capabilities when they bought him at an Adena Springs auction in Ocala.

"I told Chris this horse did not need to be put down (the Triple Crown) road," Ciardullo said. "We knew he had a tremendous pedigree to sprint. And when you try to take a horse with great speed and try to make him go long, you can put a strain on him. We didn't want to put that strain on this horse."

Super Fuse has five wins and $130,485 earned in seven starts.

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