BY TAMMY A GANTT
A son of Florida’s leading freshman sire St. Patrick’s Day, Drewmania will go postward in the $200,000 Bachelor Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park facing a field of six contenders going six furlongs. The Florida-bred breaks from the outside post for Robbie Norman of Norman Stables. Last time out Drewmania finished second after pressing the pace in the Lafayette Stakes at Evangeline Downs on Apr. 6 and was third over the Hot Springs surface on March 15 in a starter optional claimer.
Out of Cowgirl Lass by The Big Beast, Drewmania passed through the Ocala Breeder Sales first in the April 2023 sale and RNA’d at $55,000. The June sale saw RAN Racing purchase the horse for $40,000 from Fort McCoy-based Bryan and Holley Rice’s Woodside Ranch consignment. The horse last breezed on Apr. 18 for four furlongs and was the second-fastest of the morning at 48 flat.
The stakes placed gelding has finished in the money in all of his 2024 starts. He is joined by Bergen whose last win came in the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Jan. 27 at Aqueduct at the same distance of six furlongs. The horse swung four wide to win by five-and-a-quarter lengths. He is hoping to bounce back since his last start in the Gotham, where he finished eighth.
Bergen’s biggest rival appears to be Frost Free, fielded by Keene Thoroughbreds, who has one win and two thirds on the Oaklawn oval including a show on March 23 in the Hot Springs Stakes. Frost Free will wear blinkers for the first time. Joining them is Valentine Candy, a multiple stakes winner who broke his maiden at Saratoga last summer. The horse ticked off three consecutive wins at Oaklawn before his last start on March 23 at Turfway Park where he finished fourth in the Animal Kingdom Stakes.
Market Street, Time for Truth and Cats by Five round out the field. Drewmania was bred by Holley Rice.
