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Racing Analysis by Steve Haskin

You can interpret Any Given Saturday’s name any way you want, but you can bet his owners, WinStar Farm and Maverick Racing, have only one particular Saturday on their minds. There is little doubt that the son of Distorted Humor is Derby material, and now it’s just a question of what kind of transition he has made from 2-year-old to 3-year-old.

That we will find out Feb. 17 when he makes his debut in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

After coming from ninth to break his maiden by a nose at Keeneland in his first start, he turned in a sensational effort in an allowance race, despite stretching out from 51/2 furlongs to 11/16 miles. Breaking from post 9, he got hung seven-wide going into the first turn and remained wide down the backstretch. Around the far turn, he unleashed a spectacular run from eighth to first, while going five wide. The ground loss on both turns had no effect on him whatsoever, as he drew off, with long, fluid strides, to beat his talented stablemate Sam P. by three lengths.

In his stakes debut, he took on the brilliant, undefeated Tiz Wonderful. At the quarter pole, he collared the favorite, but drifted wide. The two battled head and head down the stretch, with Any Given Saturday sticking his head in front and looking like the winner. But he drifted out again inside the eighth pole and allowed Tiz Wonderful to come back and beat him a half-length.

"I thought he had an opportunity to put that race away at the top of the stretch, but Rafael (Bejarano) rode him a little overconfidently," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "Nevertheless, he ran very well, and we’re excited about him."

With that race under his belt, you can expect a more mature colt to show up at Tampa. "We gave him a little bit of freshening, so I thought the Tampa race made sense," Pletcher said. "After that, we’ll look at the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) and the (Toyota) Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I).

Pedigree Profile by Evan Hammonds

Based on his pedigree, Any Given Saturday should have the ability to win any stakes race run on a Saturday, either on the Triple Crown trail or beyond.

The Kentucky-bred colt is by Distorted Humor, who sired 2003 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner and 3-year-old champion Funny Cide from his first crop. A grade II-winning sprinter by Forty Niner, Distorted Humor started his stud career at Prestonwood Farm (now WinStar Farm) in 1999 for a fee of $12,500 and has had a meteoric rise up both the sire and price list. The sire of a remarkable 47 stakes winners so far, his fee has risen to $225,000 for 2007. Along with two-turn star Funny Cide, Distorted Humor has sired Flower Alley, who won the 10-furlong Travers Stakes (gr. I) in 2005 and was the runner-up to Horse of the Year Saint Liam in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic - Powered by Dodge (gr. I).

In addition to being by Distorted Humor, both Any Given Saturday and Funny Cide are out of Seattle Slew granddaughters. Any Given Saturday is out of the graded stakes-winning A.P. Indy mare Weekend in Indy. A.P. Indy, North America’s leading sire by progeny earnings in 2003 and 2006, is Slew’s most successful son, both on the racetrack and as a sire. A classic winner and Horse of the Year in 1992, A.P. Indy has sired 96 stakes winners. Among them are last year’s Preakness (gr. I) and 3-year-old male champion Bernardini and 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft.

Adding Triple Crown firepower to Any Given Saturday’s dam side is his second dam, stakes-winning Whow, a daughter of Hall of Fame member Spectacular Bid. The Bid, Horse of the Year in 1980, won the previous year’s Derby and Preakness and ran third to Coastal in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I). Whow, out of the Hollywood Oaks-winning Hooplah, is a half-sister to three graded stakes winners, including Afifa, who equaled the track record at Hollywood in the nine-furlong Vanity Handicap (gr. I) in 1978.