Dialed In Works Bullet Half for Fla. Derby

Robert LaPenta’s Dialed In , winner of the Holy Bull Stakes (gr. III), worked a bullet half-mile in :47 2/5 breezing at Palm Meadows March 24 in preparation for the April 3 Florida Derby (gr. I). It was the fastest of 19 works at the distance.

Working in company with stablemate Miner's Escape, Dialed In blew right past him, finishing seven lengths in front at the wire.

“He’s just an amazing horse,”said trainer Nick Zito, who caught the final eighth in :11 flat. “I’ve felt strongly about a lot of the horses I’ve trained, but there’s something about this horse that stands out. He’s been a gift from God. After what he did, winning the Holy Bull in only his second lifetime start and off a 2 1/2-month layoff, we didn’t want to do too much with him.

"I hate to use the word ‘bounce,’ but that’s what he did in the allowance race (March 6 at Gulfstream, finished second), where the pace was very slow, it was against older horses, and the winner (Equestrio, who Zito trains) is a very good horse. I wouldn't be surprised to see him win a grade I race some day.”

Zito has worked Dialed In sparingly since the Holy Bull, and today’s drill was his first since the March 6 allowance optional claiming race.

“We gallop him 2 1/2 miles and he gets a lot out of those gallops, so we don’t need to work him that often,” Zito said.”

But when Dialed In does work, he works brilliantly. In his previous work on Feb. 25 he breezed five furlongs in a bullet :59 4/5.

Dialed In, a son of Mineshaft , out of the Storm Cat mare Miss Doolittle, was purchased by LaPenta at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale for $475,000.