Tuscan Sky Seeks Breakthrough in Harlan's Holiday

Tuscan Sky has turned in performances suggestive of him being of graded stakes caliber, such as when he defeated eventual grade 1 winner Domestic Product  in this summer's ungraded Pegasus Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

Yet in his two starts in graded company, he ran far below expectations, finishing seventh in the April 6 Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) and sixth in the July 20 Haskell Stakes (G1).

He now has another opportunity at the graded stakes level Dec. 21 in the $165,000 Harlan's Holiday Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park. Coming off a second in the Nov. 3 Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, the Spendthrift Farm-owned runner looms a contender for his Hall of Fame connections of Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez.

The gray and/or roan son of Vino Rosso  worked a half-mile in a bullet :47.89 at Palm Beach Downs Dec. 14 with Major Dude, another Spendthrift Farm-owned Pletcher trainee who runs in the Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2T) during the Saturday program.

Some top finishers from the two races have historically returned to compete in Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T). Those races are Jan. 25 at Gulfstream.

Amerman Racing's Tumbarumba, fourth most recently in the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), breaks immediately to Tuscan Sky's outside in post 2 and leads the seven foes opposing Tuscan Sky. He won the one-mile Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3) in January at Gulfstream.