Second to Tiz the Law, Shivaree has ‘a lot of open avenues’
More than a month has passed since Shivaree “did all the work,” as Ralph Nicks puts it, on his way to finishing second in the March 28 Florida Derby (G1). And the trainer remains plenty excited about what could be ahead.
“There’s a lot of open avenues in front of him,” Nicks said Sunday after the Awesome of Course colt returned to the work tab at Gulfstream Park, breezing a half mile in 50.69 seconds.
Out of the Anasheed mare Garter Belt, Shivaree is a half-brother of stakes-winning sprinter Garter And Tie, who did his best running around one turn. Before the Florida Derby, Shivaree won Gulfstream’s Buffalo Man and Limehouse Stakes and earned a graded placing in the Swale (G3), all around one turn.
Stretching out in the Florida Derby, Shivaree dueled inside of Ete Indien at the front before Tiz the Law swept by for a 4 1/4-length victory. But Shivaree out-finished a number of other classy horses, among them Grade 1-placed Gouverneur Morris and Independence Hall.
“He’s such a hard-trying, solid, resilient racehorse,” Nicks said. “He’s one of the tougher horses I’ve trained in my career. He enjoys what he does and constantly wants to do better. He battles. He fights. He’s gotten passed and come back to still win.”
The Florida Derby ran behind closed doors as the COVID-19 pandemic neared its peak. Knowing stakes options would be slim in the proceeding months, Nicks then backed off the Jacks of Better Farm homebred until Sunday’s drill.
“He’s doing well,” the trainer said. “We freshened him a little bit, and it was just a maintenance breeze today to give him something to do.”
Nicks plans to stable throughout the summer in Florida, but he said he’ll be willing to travel for races with the right horse. That may be Shivaree, who he had running in stakes company last fall before the colt broke his maiden.
Dropped in class on Nov. 13, Shivaree scored that elusive first win in his fifth career start. He hasn’t finished out of the exacta since then.
“When the dust settles on what’s available, it’ll be longer around one turn or two turns,” Nicks said of Shivaree’s options. “It’ll be interesting to see if he can reproduce the form around two turns. It makes him a damn nice horse.”
Shivaree netted 40 qualifying points toward the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby with his runner-up Florida Derby effort, good for 13th on the current leaderboard.