Pletcher colt Verrazano eyes breakthrough

Two more colts will earn berths into the Kentucky Derby this weekend in the Tampa Bay Derby and San Felipe. The winner of each race will earn 50 points, enough to secure a spot in the 20-stall Derby starting gate.

Three horses already are in the Derby with wins in prep races: Ive Struck a Nerve (51 points), Vyjack (50) and Orb (50).

Both races drew far less than maximum fields of 14 runners, most likely due to the strength of the favorites.

At Tampa Bay, Verrazano (4-5) from trainer Todd Pletcher is making his stakes debut in a nine-horse field. The son of More Than Ready has won his two starts by a combined 24 lengths. In other words, in devastating manner.

If Verrazano repeats his last race win, in which he earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure in a 16¼-length victory at Gulfstream Park, he’ll win at Tampa for fun. However, horse racing never is that simple, or we’d all be rich betting on it.

Two foes, Dynamic Sky (4-1) and Falling Sky (10-1), are battle-tested and own wins on the Tampa dirt track. Tampa has a surface such that a victory on the track counts for a lot. Also, Dynamic Sky gets a huge rider switch to Joel Rosario.

Just eight horses are entered in the San Felipe at Santa Anita, mainly due to Flashback (8-5) and Goldencents (2-1). Both won two-turn stakes already at Santa Anita, so the San Felipe clearly goes through them.

Flashback is considered trainer Bob Baffert’s best Kentucky Derby prospect. He didn’t beat much in a four-horse Robert Lewis field at Santa Anita. But the Derby road is as much a learning experience prior to the ultimate test, as in piling up victories.

Goldencents has proved he doesn’t need his racetrack to overcome adversity. Last fall, trainer Doug O’Neill sent him to Belmont Park, where he ran a game second to juvenile champ Shanghai Bobby in the Champagne.

After the Champagne, Goldencents won the rich Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs. If he continues down this path, O’Neill, who won the Derby last year with I’ll Have Another, will have a puncher’s chance of repeating.

■ FLORIDA IMPASSE — In the height of insanity, Calder and Gulfstream Park will be racing against each other every weekend beginning in July. There is no doubt who the instigator is: Gulfstream. They applied to the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to run on Saturdays and Sundays in competition with Calder.

The two racetracks are only eight miles apart. But they are worlds apart trying to solve this impasse. What bothers me even more is the Florida regulators have no legal say in the matter. It would be as if Santa Anita applied for summer dates to run against Del Mar, and the California Horse Racing Board couldn’t stop it.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick.