Tackleberry struts his stuff without lasix

It isn’t often that the most anticipated race of the year is a $100,000 non-graded stakes being run for the first time. The race, of course, was the Timely Writer, a one-mile event Saturday at Gulfstream Park that was selected as — if not created for — the 3-year-old debut of 2010 Juvenile Champion Uncle Mo.

The undefeated son of Indian Charlie had little trouble dispatching a field that included four maiden winners and just one horse with stakes experience. Neither the final time nor the margin of victory really mattered. The important thing was to get a race into the Kentucky Derby favorite, and to see that he galloped out strongly afterward — which reportedly he did. Next stop: the Wood Memorial April 9 at Aqueduct.

Not long after Uncle Mo returned to the barn in Florida, Premier Pegasus delivered on his considerable promise with a rousing 7 ¾-length victory in the Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita. The win shot the once-beaten colt to the top of the West Coast 3-year-old division.

The racing highlight of the weekend for this writer, however, was Tackleberry’s neck win in the Gulfstream Park Handicap. Facing a solid field of mostly Grade 1-experienced runners (including fellow late developers Tizway and Soaring Empire), the 4-year-old gelding scored a gutsy, front-running victory in winning for the seventh time in his past eight starts. Tizway, Soaring Empire and Duke of Mischief all closed with a rush in a four-horse blanket finish but were unable to get to the winner.