Three Heating Up: Burnham Square Moves Forward

1. Burnham Square Sometimes an equipment change can make all the difference. Trainer Ian Wilkes fitted Burnham Square with blinkers two starts back and the Liam's Map gelding is 2-for-2 since, including a last-to-first win by 1 3/4 lengths in the $250,000 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park. I'll take Wilkes at his word that the blinkers have given this 3-year-old a big boost, but he was not exactly bad before then. He rallied to finish second by a half-length in his career debut in a Keeneland sprint last October and then third by three-quarters of a length in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race at Churchill Downs in November. The strides Burnham Square has made in his last two starts have been noticeable as he earned a career-best 92 Equibase Speed Figure and 86 Beyer Speed Figure for his Dec. 28 maiden win at Gulfstream and then bettered both of them in the Holy Bull (95 Equibase, 90 Beyer). He broke a little slowly in the Holy Bull and was really wide entering the first turn, then settled in at the back of the field while getting a ton of dirt kicked back at him under Edgard Zayas. He made a move along the inside of horses on the backstretch, navigated around the fading pacesetter on the final turn, and then swung wide again entering the stretch before reeling in Tappan Street. That's a significant amount of on-the-job training in one race and he then finished with a final furlong in a strong :12.53. Simply put, I thought this was a quality race that led me to elevate the Whitham Thoroughbreds homebred from mostly off my Kentucky Derby (G1) radar to legitimate contender. 2. Captain Cook I picked Burnham Square for the top spot but I could make an equally compelling argument for Captain Cook... it was that close. You can probably draw a line through his career debut when he got off to a troubled start in a Churchill Downs sprint. In two starts since, Captain Cook has been terrific. He scored by 9 1/4 lengths in a seven-furlong race on a sloppy track Dec. 28 at Aqueduct Racetrack and then shined when stretching out to 1 1/8 miles there for his stakes debut in the $250,000 Withers Stakes. He settled nicely under jockey Manny Franco in the Withers while stalking the pace from three wide in third, and responded willingly when asked to accelerate. The Practical Joke colt pulled away to win by 2 1/4 lengths with a final quarter-mile in :24.98 and a final eighth of a mile in :12.61, impressive closing fractions at this distance for a 3-year-old in early February. Trainer Rick Dutrow won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (G1) with Big Brown in 2008, so he knows what it takes to get a 3-year-old ready for the trials and tribulations of the Triple Crown trail. Dutrow has another good one in this colt from the family that produced 2004 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Birdstone and 2003 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Bird Town. Captain Cook aced both a class and distance test in the Withers, and the career-best 97 Equibase Speed Figure and 94 Beyer Speed Figure support his case as a serious Derby horse. 3. Citizen Bull I seriously considered giving the final slot here to impressive allowance winner River Thames, but how can you deny the returning champion 2-year-old male his place after a 3 3/4-length romp over highly regarded stablemate Rodriguez in the $200,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park? I really like Rodriguez as a Derby hopeful and Citizen Bull beat him on the square in his first start in three months, leading from start to finish to earn a 107 Equibase Speed Figure and a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, both new benchmarks. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said Citizen Bull wasn't fully cranked up for this race, which is a scary thought for the rest of the 3-year-old division. There is always a bit of uncertainty when a star 2-year-old gets time off and returns at 3... was he more precocious that his peers last year, will he continue to improve, have others gained on him? Citizen Bull answered pretty definitively in my view that he's still the king until someone knocks him off the throne. Also eligible: The one 3-year-old I'm most interested watching coming out of last weekend in terms of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool is River Thames. The Todd Pletcher-trained Maclean's Music colt followed a flashy debut win sprinting Jan. 11 at Gulfstream with another runaway win Feb. 1 when stretching out to a mile, pulling 6 1/2 lengths clear at the finish line. He settled nicely on the inside of another horse in the allowance race and put him away when asked. He's earned a 94 and a 92 Beyer Speed Figure for his two starts.