FIRECRACKER FUTURITY & DERBY ON SUNDAY

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Delta Downs | Posted 6/28/2007, 6:36 pm

Taylor empties barn for two Delta Grade 2s

By TY WYANT
Trainer Heath Taylor should be ready to have some fun on the Fourth of July after he saddles the two fastest qualifiers and three finalists in both the Grade 2, $230,150 Firecracker Futurity and the Gradeo2, $92,800 Firecracker Derby for Quarter Horses on Sunday night at Delta Downs.

Taylor's three futurity horses are fastest-qualifier Coronas Leaving You plus Southern Ladys Alibi and Separatist in View.

Coronas Leaving You, a half brother to 2002 co-world champion Whosleavingwho, is undefeated from three starts and the margin of each of his wins has grown with each race. After narrowly winning his maiden, he won his Heritage Place Futurity trial by a length and then his Firecracker Futurity trial by two lengths. The colt's time of 17.602 seconds for 350 yards was the fastest of the four trials.

Southern Ladys Alibi won her first race in the Firecracker Futurity trials and Separatist in View has 2 wins from 3 starts.

Leading Taylor's three derby qualifiers are Goinbye and My First Passion, the top two qualifiers and the two trial winners.

Goinbye came into the trials with four second-place finishes from five starts, but came through with an upset victory at 50-1 in her sixth start, winning her trial by a length in 19.910 seconds for 400 yards.

In the other trial, one of Taylor's top juveniles of 2006, My First Passion, made his season debut with a neck win and deserves being favored in the finals. He won last year's Firecracker Futurity, then finished sixth in the Grade 1, $2 million All American Futurity.

Taylor's third derby runner, Deceitfulness, is the ninth-fastest qualifier.

Ketel Won back in Higheasterjet

Ketel Won makes his 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3, $40,000 Higheasterjet Handicap on Saturday afternoon at Ruidoso Downs. He qualified for two Grade 1 derbies last summer

A strapping colt from the Paul Jones stable, Ketel Won was sixth in the Grade 1 Rainbow Derby and fifth in the Grade 1 All American Derby. He then raced to his best stakes finish - a close third in the $119,000 Hobbs America Derby, defeated by a neck.

The sharp horse in the Higheasterjet is Sizzling, coming off a narrow win in the $36,000 Junos Request Stakes against females at Remington Park. She concluded her 2006 season with a second in the Grade 1 John Deere Distaff Challenge Championship.

LDS Dash for Dylan defends

LDS Dash for Dylan, second in the 2006 Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap, defends his title in the Grade 2, $78,390 Bank of America Northwest Challenge at Les Bois Park on Saturday.

A 5-year-old gelding, LDS Dash for Dylan returned from six-month layoff to win his Northwest Challenge trial easily, in the fastest qualifying time of 21.198 seconds for 440 yards.

LDS Dash for Dylan won last year's running by 1 1/4 quarter lengths, then went to Los Alamitos and ran a close second in the Go Man Go to 2004 world champion Be a Bono and a third behind champions Apollitical Time and Strawkins in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Championship. LDS Dash for Dylan was also third in the Grade 1 Bank of America Challenge Championship at Lone Star Park.