Azam reboots following ambitious stakes try
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Jose D’Angelo made a bold decision in May when he ran the last-out maiden winner Azam in the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Aqueduct. That start didn’t go to plan, but if the 3-year-old colt can get back on track in a $70,000 allowance on Sunday at Gulfstream Park, it could re-energize his trainer’s ambitions.
“He’s a nice horse,” D’Angelo said. “He went to New York, but I don’t think he liked the trip too too much. I gave him a break. He has started working, and I’ve worked him from the beginning in company. We’re ready for Sunday.”
It’s interesting to consider how differently Azam’s career might have gone if he had not been disqualified from a victory in his June 2025 debut. That was his lone start as a juvenile, and he would have returned to face winners as a 3-year-old.
“If he hadn’t been disqualified, he probably would have gone straight to a stakes, so it would have been very different company for him,” D’Angelo said. “But we also had to give him a break after that race, so it was probably the right thing for him to come back in the right company and go from there.”
It took Azam another two attempts at Gulfstream to officially pick up his maiden win, when he stretched out to a mile in April and won by two lengths with a 74 Beyer Speed Figure.
D’Angelo said he went to the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan next because he thought his promising colt would appreciate the added distance, particularly around two turns. He faded to last by 26 lengths on a good track that day, but it was not enough to deter his trainer, who said he would like to stretch him out again in the future.
For now, it’s back to basics for the colt coming off a nearly three-month layoff. He will cut back to a more comfortable mile in a field of six 3-year-olds in the hopes of getting another win under his belt.
Azam is not the only last-out stakes runner in Sunday’s eighth race, as Moonstrocity and Move Jesse Move have also been pushed into tough company early in their careers.
Moonstrocity, a colt trained by Jena Antonucci, ran in the Grade 1 Blue Grass as a maiden earlier this year, and finished 37 3/4 lengths behind Further Ado. After picking up his maiden victory in May, he switched to synthetic and finished a distant fourth in the $100,000 Not Surprising.
Move Jesse Move, the only horse in the field with multiple wins, notched a first-level allowance score at Tampa Bay Downs in April. He returned in June to finish seventh in the Not Surprising and fifth in the $100,000 Carry Back for trainer Lester Barbazon III.
Arabia Wild, a former Brad Cox trainee claimed by Gustavo Delgado in March, has run on turf and synthetic since shipping to Gulfstream. His last start on dirt was his last for Cox, finishing third in a $50,000 starter/optional-claiming race at Fair Grounds behind future stakes winner J J Grey.
Hayden Remembered, an 11 1/2-length maiden winner last month, and the outsider Beau Black complete the field.
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