Double Crown on the radar for summer's top 3-year-old races

Double Crown exited Saturday’s Roar Stakes victory at Gulfstream Park “in really excellent shape,” with owner Dean Reeves looking to stretch the 3-year-old gelding next time out.

The son of Bourbon Courage, trained by Kathy Ritvo, held off Green Light Go and survived an objection to win his stakes debut in the $75,000 listed event.

It was just the third start for Double Crown, who broke his maiden last September before running second in a six-furlong allowance race on April 26 over the Roar Stakes' course and distance.

“I think we’re going to look for something about a mile," Reeves said of Double Crown's immediate future. "(That) would be ideal to try that next before we jump to two turns.”

Reeves isn't sure where the next race will be. 

“We’re going to actually see what’s down here, and we’re going to check the Maryland condition book too to see what they may have up there because, being a Maryland-bred, we may ship up there," Reeves said. "And if they’ve got a stakes race or something up there that would make sense, we may run up there probably with him and Ournationonparade.”

Ournationonparade finished fourth in the Roar. Reeves Thoroughbred Racing purchased both of them privately last fall after Double Crown bested Ournationonparade by a neck in their debut race at Laurel Park.

They were bought with the 2020 Kentucky Derby in mind, and that may still be a possibility with the race postponed to Sept. 5.

"Let’s assume, be positive, that he does OK in his next race," Reeves said of Double Crown. "Then I think that probably puts us into middle of July. I’ve got to look and see what’s in New York, we’re waiting to see what happens to see with Keeneland – if they get those dates and come up with something in the middle of July – and then we may look at possibly the Haskell.”

While Double Crown has exclusively sprinted so far, Reeves sees a two-turn pedigree tailor made for dirt with his horse out of the Two Punch mare Two Columbus.

"He’s got good speed that he can carry and still have a closing kick," Reeves said. "So I think that’s important if you’re going to go two turns, to be able to have enough speed to carry yourself.

“We’ve been real happy with the way he’s developed. He’s gotten a little bigger and stronger, which is always good, and we’re excited with the race he had (Saturday) and what we can look forward to. There’s a lot of opportunities in front of us now. We’ve got a lot of things we can look at.”