Pletcher could send Stat, Heavy Breathing to Arkansas Derby

by Brisnet.com

Trainer Todd Pletcher has two Arkansas Derby wins and used the path through

Hot Springs, Arkansas, to win his first Kentucky Derby two years ago with Super

Saver, who had finished second in Oaklawn Park's signature race. His stacked

stable will again be represented during the season's Grade 1 headline event with

Stat and Heavy Breathing being the most likely Pletcher starters in the $1

million key Derby prep on April 14.

Stat will get an important breeze Sunday morning at Palm Meadows Training

Center in Florida to help Pletcher make a final determination. The son of

Unbridled's Song exits a 6 1/4-length optional claiming win at Gulfstream Park

on March 17 and was runner-up in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special last summer behind

top-ranked Union Rags.

"He's doing good and has picked it up lately," Pletcher said. "He'll have

that breeze and we'll see how he does."

Heavy Breathing will make a relatively quick turnaround after finishing third

in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 24. That was the Giant's

Causeway colt's first career loss after dominating two races in Florida,

including an optional claimer at the same 1 1/8-mile distance of the Arkansas

Derby.

"He was on the lead in the Spiral and went :23 and :46," Pletcher said,

offering an alibi for that first loss. "It looks like that was pretty ambitious

on the front-end."

As has become typical, Pletcher is mapping a course for several top

three-year-olds over the next three weeks of Derby preps. He sent El Padrino in

the Grade 1 Florida Derby on Saturday and has Gemologist penciled in for the

Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 7. Both of those contests boast million-dollar

purses, and the results could affect if Stat and Heavy Breathing are indeed the

Oaklawn raiders.

Pletcher also added Wait Til Dawn, the three-year-old daughter of Giant's

Causeway who captured the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, to the Grade 2,

$300,000 Fantasy Stakes on April 11 at the start of the Racing Festival of the

South.