Rattlesnake Bridge will go for the big
money in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby (G2) Sept. 24 at Parx
Racing as the 3-year-old son of Tapit lines up in the outside gate in
the field of nine sophomores.
The gray/roan colt will try to do one
better than his game runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Travers S. at
Saratoga last month. The Mill House-owned colt has already collected
the top prize in the $165,000 Long Branch S. at Monmouth Park in
July.
Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin,
Rattlesnake Bridge is 2-3-0 in six starts, all coming in 2011.
Rattlesnake Bridge, and Trappe Shot, another son of Tapit who was
runner-up in the recent Alfred G. Vanderbilit (G2), worked four
furlongs in company in 49.85 seconds over the main track at Belmont
on Sept. 17.
“They both were kind of easing up
late,” said McLaughlin, referring to exercise riders Renzo Morales
on Rattlesnake Bridge and Marsha Barrs on Trappe Shot. “Rattlesnake
went 47-and-2 last week, so we weren’t looking for anything too
fast. It was a nice work. All is well.”
Rattlesnake Bridge is one of 11 stakes
winners in 2011 for Tapit, who ranks third on the North American
general sire list with progeny earnings of nearly $6 million.