With the Kentucky Derby prep races in their final few weeks, usracing.com is publishing profiles of the contenders for the $750,000 Florida Derby (G1) on Saturday [March 27], a Derby points-qualifier offering 100-40-20-10 points to the first four finishers. Post-position and odds will be updated following Wednesday’s draw.
By Margaret Ransom
Undefeated in two starts, Soup and Sandwich got a later start than most of his fellow Derby hopefuls and didn’t debut until the end of January at Gulfstream Park.
In that debut, he posted an eye-popping 7¼-length score in a 6 ½-furlong maiden special weight test. A month later, trainer Mark Casse shipped the colt to Tampa Bay Downs where he again impressed by an open-length victory, winning a 1-mile, 40-yard allowance test by 2 ¾ lengths.
Though he only defeated two rivals that day and displayed a very erratic trip, which included bumping in tight quarters, goofing off on the lead and ducking out at the wire, Casse is confident in his room for improvement level heading into this race and expects a smoother effort.
Soup and Sandwich has spent the winter with Casse’s Palm Meadows string and hasn’t missed a beat while training.
Florida Derby Contender Profile: Soup and Sandwich
Post position: TBD
Odds: TBD
Trainer: Mark Casse
Jockey: Antonio Gallardo
Owner: Live Oak Plantation (Charlotte Weber)
Age: 3
Career record: 2-2-0-0
Career earnings: $42,875
Top Equibase speed figure: 99
Pedigree: Into Mischief-Souper Scoop, by Tapit
Color: Gray
Running style: Stalker
Notes: Soup and Sandwich comes by his name quite honestly as owner Weber is the heir to the Campbell’s Soup company … Colt is a grandson of Grade 3 winner Scoop, who Weber purchased for $2.1 million at Keeneland in 2005 in foal to El Prado and who she sold for $80,000 through the same ring nine years later, three years after she produced this colt’s winning dam, who Weber kept in her breeding program … A son of Into Mischief, who is currently sitting second on the general sires list through early March after taking top honors in 2019 and 2020 … Into Mischief is also the sire of last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1)/Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Authentic and 2018 Florida Derby winner Audible, who was third in the Derby, among dozens of other stakes winners.
California native and lifelong horsewoman Margaret Ransom is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. She got her start in racing working in the publicity departments at Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park, as well as in the racing office at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. She then spent six years in Lexington, KY, at BRISnet.com, where she helped create and develop the company’s popular newsletters: Handicapper’s Edge and Bloodstock Journal.
After returning to California, she served six years as the Southern California news correspondent for BloodHorse, assisted in the publicity department at Santa Anita Park and was a contributor to many other racing publications, including HorsePlayer Magazine and Trainer Magazine. She then spent seven years at HRTV and HRTV.com in various roles as researcher, programming assistant, producer and social media and marketing manager.
She has also walked hots and groomed runners, worked the elite sales in Kentucky for top-class consignors and volunteers for several racehorse retirement organizations, including CARMA.
In 2016, Margaret was the recipient of the prestigious Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, sponsored by Team Valor, and was an Eclipse Award honorable mention for her story, “The Shocking Untold Story of Maria Borell,” which appeared on USRacing.com. The article and subsequent stories helped save 43 abandoned and neglected Thoroughbreds in Kentucky and also helped create a new animal welfare law known as the “Borell Law.”
Margaret’s very first Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park in 1984 and she has attended more than half of the Breeders’ Cups since. She counts Holy Bull and Arrogate as her favorite horses of all time. She lives in Pasadena with her longtime beau, Tony, two Australian Shepherds and one Golden Retriever.
