Best Brisnet Speed Figure: 107 (Florida Derby).
COMMENTS: But for less than five lengths, Florida Derby (GI) winner Audible would be undefeated in five starts heading into the May 5 Kentucky Derby (GI). As it is, he sits on a four-race win streak after finishing third in his debut.
A twist of fate placed the New York-bred son of Into Mischief, who was a $500,000 Fasig-Tipton 2-year-old-in-training purchase, in the Feb. 3 Holy Bull Stakes (GII) at Gulfstream Park rather than his intended target — a stakes race for state-breds in The Big Apple (the race didn’t go due to weather). So, mostly thanks to Mother Nature, Audible heads to Kentucky as Florida’s best chance for a repeat Derby win for trainer Todd Pletcher and co-owners WinStar Farm.
All told, 18 winners of the Florida Derby have gone on to wear the blanket of roses in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, most recently Always Dreaming a year ago. Javier Castellano has ridden Audible in his last two starts and chose him over Grade 1 winner Bolt D’Oro, who he rode to a second-place in the Santa Anita Derby.
The colt, who also represents China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners and Starlight Racing in his ownership group, currently sits atop the Kentucky Derby points list with 110, thanks to his Holy Bull and Florida Derby wins and is assured a spot in the gate come the first Saturday in May.
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.
