Arindel ready to hit the gas with Octane

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three-year olds are on everybody’s radar around these parts during the Gulfstream Park championship meet, although one that has been conspicuous by his absence thus far this winter is Octane, the undisputed leader of the local 2-year-old division in 2021.

Octane won three of his four starts at 2, including the final two legs of the Florida Sire Series, capping off his campaign with a popular, wire-to-wire victory in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes on Sept. 25 for which he received a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

Octane, an Arindel homebred by Brethren, is presently on the family farm in Ocala but is expected to re-join trainer Carlos David’s barn within the next several days per stable manager Brian Cohen, the son of Arindel owner Alan Cohen.

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“He’s scheduled to work on the farm tomorrow and then head back to Carlos early next week,” said Cohen. “He’s doing well. He would have been there sooner but he got a little sick. Nothing serious, but it probably pushed things back about three weeks.”

A big work from Octane on Saturday would put a punctuation mark on a memorable week for the younger Cohen, who celebrated the birth of his first child, Noah, with his fiancée, jockey Fanny Olsson, on Thursday.

The family is also looking forward to next Saturday, when they send out Octane’s full, older brother Gatsby in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint. Gatsby has flourished over the past five months, capturing two of his five starts during that span for David including the Sunshine Sprint for Florida breds by 1 1/4 lengths while earning a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure in the process.

Cohen also reports that he’s expecting big things this spring from Jellybean, Octane and Gatsby’s full baby sister, who had her first work, three furlongs in 38.20, at the farm earlier this week.