Photo: CDI
Local authorities normally frown on
attempts to ship Florida citrus to Louisiana, but when it comes to shipping the
highly regarded 3-year-old Citrus Kid from South Florida’s Palm Meadows
training center to Fair Grounds for Saturday’s Grade II Lecomte
Stakes as the centerpiece event of its “Road to the Derby Kickoff Day”
program – nobody has a problem with that.
Following a bullet breeze Tuesday at
Palm Meadows accomplished in 1:00.85, Citrus Kid was loaded on a van for New
Orleans later in the day and
was surely feeling his oats Thursday morning during training hours at Fair
Grounds.
“This is a very nice horse,” said
assistant trainer Reynaldo Abreu, who accompanied Citrus Kid to Fair
Grounds for trainer John Terranova II, “and he’s also a very happy horse
right now. He’s been training very well, and his last two works have been
unbelievable. He went to the track this morning and he was looking around
taking it all in. He was happy and squealing the whole time he was out there. Sometimes
after a 10-hour van ride, a horse can look a little dull, but he stepped off
feeling really good. Later, we will take him to the paddock in the afternoon
for schooling.”
Citrus Kid, a son of 1999 Belmont Stakes
winner Lemon Drop Kid, won the $75,000 Dover Stakes at Delaware Park
last Oct. 10 and then ran third in Aqueduct’s Grade II Remsen in his most
recent start Nov. 28. He is listed as the fifth choice in the Lecomte
morning line at 8-1.
Terranova, 39, was born in Syosset,
New York
and still resides there. He saddled Shadow Caster to win the Grade II
Forego Handicap at Saratoga
at odds of 50-1, and in 2000 saddled Gander
to finish second in Belmont’s
Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup and third in the Grade I Woodward Stakes.
Abreu began working for Terranova last
month. Previously, he served as a longtime assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Nick
Zito and then went out on his own to train some horses for Mary Lou
Whitney.
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