Gulfstream Park notes: Spiral Stakes at Turfway next for Balance the Books

Barbara D. Livingston

Balance the Books (left) and Noble Tune work earlier this year at Palm Meadows Training Center. Balance the Books had to miss the Palm Beach because he got sick and will train up the the Spiral Stakes March 23 at Turfway Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown said he’d been looking forward to starting Balance the Books in Sunday’s Grade 3 Palm Beach, which was won impressively by Rydilluc, but had to pass the race after Balance the Books took ill. The third-place finisher in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Balance the Books worked a bullet half-mile in 48.18 seconds over the main track at Palm Meadows on Sunday.

He will run next in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 23, Brown said.

“He popped a temperature on me about a week and a half ago,” Brown said. “I was very disappointed, because we’d pointed towards the Palm Beach the whole time and I wanted to use it as a prep for the Blue Grass. I did breeze the horse on Sunday. He looked great, and now I’m going to have to go to Plan B and train him up to the Spiral.”

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

9-year-old coming off 4 1/2-year layoff

The most intriguing horse on Wednesday’s program is Real Estate, a son of High Yield trained by Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens. Real Estate will be making his first start since winning the James B. Moseley Handicap at Suffolk Downs in September 2008 for which he earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure.

The 9-year-old Real Estate, a homebred owned by Peter Blum Racing, has made only seven starts. He has trained forwardly for his return here, having posted a series of works dating back to mid-January, including five furlongs in 59.67 on Feb. 26. He’ll launch his comeback in a lower-level optional claiming race while racing under a $25,000 claiming tag Wednesday.

Golden Mystery runs for new owners

Golden Mystery, runaway winner of the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie Stakes on Feb. 10, has returned to trainer Marty Wolfson’s barn after being sold to Regis Farms for $625,000 on Feb. 11 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale. Golden Mystery was back on the work tab at Calder on Sunday, breezing four furlongs in 49.80.

“She got back a few days after the sale, so she only missed five days of training,” Wolfson said. “She’ll run in the Inside Information here next, and the new owners have talked about the Humana Distaff after that.”

The seven-furlong Grade 2 Inside Information will be run here March 17, with the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, May 4.”

◗ Joe Rocco Jr. matched Joel Rosario’s four-bagger on Friday with four winners of his own on Sunday’s card. Two of Rocco’s wins came for the owner-trainer combination of Frank Calabrese and Luis Ramirez.