After successful trip to Ascot, D'Angelo sends out top two choices

After Gabaldon finished second a week ago at Royal Ascot in the Windsor Castle Stakes, winning an allowance race at Gulfstream Park may pale in comparison for trainer Jose D’Angelo. Although if form holds true, that’s exactly what is likely to happen in Thursday’s $61,000 main event, to be decided at a mile and one-sixteenth over the Tapeta course, with D’Angelo sending out the two morning-line favorites, K. C. Chief and Spy Hunter.

K. C. Chief comes into the race off a pair of gate-to-wire victories over the Tapeta track in April, with both those wins coming for trainer Julie Stormfelt. The first win came by 4 3/4 lengths over moderately priced conditioned-claiming competition, the second by 1 1/4 lengths as the 3-2 favorite in a first-level optional-claiming and allowance race restricted to Florida-breds just three weeks later.

K. C. Chief paired up 87 Beyer Speed Figures in those efforts, just a point less than his career best.

K. C. Chief was transferred to D’Angelo shortly thereafter by his owner, Rancho Alegre, when Stormfelt and her stable shipped out of the area for the season. It was a logical move considering K. C. Chief’s affinity for the synthetic track and the opportunities at Gulfstream for Florida-breds this time of the year.

Spy Hunter has finished second for D’Angelo in two of his last three starts against similarly conditioned opposition, with each of those outings decided on turf. He could actually benefit from the switch to the Tapeta course considering he won his only prior start over that surface going five furlongs against Florida-bred allowance opposition last fall.

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The imposing D’Angelo duo will face five rivals, including the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained pair of King d’Oro and Treasure King, the latter appearing the stronger of the two exiting a well-graded second-place finish against high-priced conditioned claimers on the grass four weeks earlier.

Treasure King is already a proven commodity on the Tapeta, having won once and finished in the money six times in 11 tries over the synthetic strip. King d’Oro, on the other hand, will be a bit of a question mark debuting over the surface off a maiden special weight victory on turf in his most recent try on May 4.

Happy Runner also looms a major contender returning to a surface he’s handled well in the past. He is another in the lineup coming into the race off a victory, having defeated high-level optional-claiming and starter-allowance company going a mile on the grass April 21.

O’Captain, looking to regain his best form, and the lightly raced Blue Slide Park complete the lineup.

Gabaldon earns a rest

Gabaldon finished second in a field of 27 juveniles, beaten just a length by Ain’t Nobody, in the five-furlong Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot on June 19. The son of Gone Astray, a bargain $9,000 purchase by D’Angelo for the Soldi Stable Inc. as a yearling at the OBS October 2023 sale, had earned an automatic berth into the race as well as a $25,000 travel stipend by virtue of capturing the Royal Palm Juvenile by 1 1/4 lengths making his career debut at Gulfstream five weeks earlier.

Gabaldon was ridden in both starts by Emisael Jaramillo.

D’Angelo, who was the only U.S.-based trainer to hit the board this year at Royal Ascot, said Gabaldon will go to the farm for a rest to recover from the stress of the race and long journey to England with his main goal during the second half of the season likely the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

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