Aqueduct: Parboo’s small string looking for big results

OZONE PARK, N.Y – Trainer Bisnath Parboo has shipped a small string of horses to New York from south Florida, and if Thursday was any indication, he should be taken seriously here this winter.

Parboo ran second at Aqueduct on Thursday with both Nick Rules and Off the Jak, the latter getting beat a nose by Wee Freudian in a starter allowance. Parboo also had two horses scheduled to start Saturday.

Shivananda Parbhoo, the trainer’s son and managing partner of the family stable, claimed Off the Jak for $12,500 on July 4 and gave the horse some time off and gelded him. He came back Sept. 9 with a win for maiden $12,500 at Calder before finishing fourth in an allowance at Calder on Nov. 19 and second in a starter allowance at Fair Grounds on Dec. 3.

“After we sent him to Louisiana, the jockey told me he’d go anywhere to ride this horse,” said Parbhoo, referring to jockey Luis Jurado, who did ride the horse Thursday. “He’s a nice horse, I don’t know how far he’s going to get. If he was on the outside [Thursday], he would have won.”

Parbhoo’s big horse, the Grade 1-winning New York-bred Giant Ryan, also could be headed this way soon. Parbhoo said that Giant Ryan was scheduled to work next Saturday at Calder, and if all goes well, he could be pointed to New York for the Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes on Feb. 4.

Giant Ryan is a virtual certainty to be named New York-bred Horse of the Year for 2011, after winning six consecutive races, including the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont. He finished eighth of nine in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs.

“He should be ready, he’s galloping right now, he’s going to breeze next weekend,” Parbhoo said. “When he came out of the Breeders’ Cup, he had a respiratory infection in his lungs. That is gone. We gave him a little time.”

Parbhoo has two horses nominated to stakes here next weekend, but neither is expected to start. Exclusively Maria, who won the Cassidy Stakes at Calder on Oct. 1, is nominated to the Ruthless next Saturday, but won’t make that race, Parbhoo said. Trinniberg, the Hopeful and Nashua runner-up, is nominated to the Jimmy Winkfield on Jan. 16, but he, too, will skip that race. Both could come to New York later in the winter, Parbhoo said.

Trinniberg has not run since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint.