Barbados remains on target for Hutcheson

Trainer Mike Tomlinson said things couldn’t be better with Barbados, a three-length winner of the Jan. 3 Spectacular Bid at Gulfstream Park, and indicated that the colt will run back in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes on the Holy Bull undercard next Saturday.

“I’ll probably do a little something with him Tuesday, maybe breeze him an easy three-eighths,” said Tomlinson. “With just three weeks between races, there’s no need to ask for too much.”

Gulfstream stakes coordinator Mike Costanzo said he is expecting seven or eight 3-year-olds when entries for the seven-furlong Hutcheson are taken Monday.

Barbados was purchased in November at Keeneland from the WinStar dispersal for $340,000 by the Suzanne Stables of Illinois residents Paul and Suzanne Hanifl. The colt is by the noted sprint sire Speightstown, and Tomlinson, a trainer since 1991, said he has “no delusions” about how successful Barbados might be when the distances get longer.

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“If he runs well in the Hutcheson, we’ll go in the Swale,” a seven-furlong race here Feb. 28, “and then either the Florida Derby or Blue Grass,” both at 1 1/8 miles.

“I don’t know how far he can run,” said Tomlinson, “but if circumstances are right, we’re going to give him the opportunity to show us what he can handle.”

This is the third winter at Gulfstream for Tomlinson, a 60-year-old former baseball player who graduated from Oklahoma State University. He wintered the 10 prior years at Oaklawn Park, and before that, he stayed home in Kentucky to race at Turfway Park.