Best Plan Yet staying on turf for English Channel

As a multiple stakes winner on the main track, Best Plan Yet has proven to be a formidable dirt horse. But there are reasons to believe that turf might end up being his true calling, and his connections will explore that avenue Saturday, when the horse makes just his second start on grass in the $75,000 English Channel at Gulfstream Park.

The English Channel is for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles and is the second of two stakes on the card. The $50,000 Kodiak Island features 2-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs.

Best Plan Yet is part of an English Channel field that includes Notyouraveragejoe, a turf stakes winner making his first start since November, and Gelfenstein, a half-brother to Grade 1 Turbo Compressor.

Best Plan Yet won a pair of main-track route races at Calder last fall, taking the $85,000 Foolish Pleasure in September and the $300,000 In Reality division of the Florida Stallion Stakes in October. He made his turf debut last out and was third in a restricted stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Tampa Bay Downs on April 5.

“I think [turf] is probably what he wants,” said Stanley Gold, who trains Best Plan Yet for Jacks or Better Farm. “I’ve been looking for the grass since Day 1 because the mare, her whole family, there’s been a steady diet of turf horses. [And] I never liked his action on the dirt. He just got the job done in the Stallion Stakes. We finally got on turf at Tampa, and he finished a good third. I think the turf is where he belongs.”

Best Plan Yet is out of the stakes-winning mare Bayou Plans, whose offspring include Bayou’s Lassie, a multiple stakes winner on grass who ran out $707,227, and Awesome Belle, a two-time winner on grass who was a stakes winner of more than $500,000. In addition, Hear No Evil, the sire of Best Plan Yet, was a two-time winner on turf.

“I’m optimistic on the grass,” said Gold, who has given the mount to Edgard Zayas.

Trainer David Fawkes entered Daring Kathy, a 3 3/4-length winner of the $90,000 Honey Ryder at Gulfstream in her most recent start May 10, but on Thursday morning, he said she would instead run in the Starfish Bay, a race for 3-year-old fillies Sunday at Gulfstream. Her scratch would reduce the English Channel field to 13.

◗ Dekabrist, who was a 15 1/4-length debut winner, is one of three Gennadi Dorochenko trainees in the Kodiak Island field of seven. For his effort, the Street Boss colt earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90. His rivals include Wicked Rascal, a half-brother to Scandalous Act who swept last year’s fillies’ division of the Florida Stallion Stakes.