Tie Rod, one of two stakes winners in a nine-horse field, will stretch out to 1 1/16 miles and try for his third career stakes win in the $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby on Saturday at Turf Paradise. John Pendergast and Joe Johnson’s Tie Rod enters the Turf Paradise Derby off a win in the Rattlesnake Stakes on January 26 by an eye-catching 10 3/4 lengths.

Initially campaigned at Canterbury Downs, the bay Old Topper gelding won the Brian Barenscheer Juvenile Stakes there in his third career start. He has won three of nine starts and has earned $69,470.

Barbara and Eddie Madden Sr.’s In to the West, third in the Rattlesnake, followed that with a second-place finish in his most recent start, an overnight stakes at Turf Paradise. The Western Fame gelding has contested all six of his career starts at Turf Paradise including a second in the Lost in the Fog Juvenile Stakes on December 31.

The lone colt in the field, George Todaro’s Gregorian Bay ships in off a runner-up finish in a one-mile allowance race on December 29 at Golden Gate Fields.
Source racing.bloodhorse.com