Thunder Blitz is a son of Holy Bull trained by Joe Orseno, who has been high on the colt's ability since last year. Thunder Blitz ran well in all three of his starts this year at Gulfstream without winning. He was suffering a foot injury in the early season.The wild card is Robert Kaufman and partners' Proud Man. A son of Manlove trained by Harry Benson and to be ridden by Rene Douglas. Proud Man has been the leader of the 3-year-old turf division in Florida this winter. He was purchased privately a few days before winning the Tropical Park Derby on New Year's Day at Calder, and has since won the Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream and the Everglades Stakes over the Hialeah Turf Course.Completing the field for the Flamingo are Tour of the Cat (Abad Cassa) 12-1; Talk Is Money (Cornelio Velasquez) 15-1; Radical Riley (Eduardo Nunez) 10-1; A.P. Topper (Abdiel Toribio) 30-1; Wild Summer (Jason Eads) 20-1; Free of Love (Jose Santos) 8-1; and Papa M and M (Jose Ferrer) 8-1.
Outofthebox and Thunder Blitz will bid to earn a berth in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) when they meet in a field of 10 set to go postward in the $250,000 Flamingo Stakes (gr. III) at Hialeah Park.Jeremy Beasley will ride Bertram, Elaine and Richard Klein's Outofthebox and break from post position three as the 8-to-5 morning-line favorite. Stronach Stable's Thunder Blitz drew post five and Edgar Prado flies in for the mount.Trained by Bernie Flint, Outofthebox is a highly consistent son of Montbook who had finished second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. I) at Gulfstream Park prior to another good effort when second to Monarchos in the Florida Derby (gr. I).