Broadway Producer finally gets it

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer John Terranova tried everything he could think of to keep Broadway Producer from becoming a flop. He ran him short and long, with blinkers and without, on turf and dirt. He even dropped him into a couple of claiming races last summer. All to no avail.

But in the end, all it took to make Broadway Producer finally produce was time.

Broadway Producer will put his two-race win streak on the line Thursday at Gulfstream Park against second-level allowance competition in a $48,000 turf race for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.

"He's a real late-blooming colt," said Terranova. "We always knew he had talent, but the maturity level just wasn't there yet. Even when he broke his maiden he was laying on horses and goofing around. But he really seemed to put it all together in his last race, and I think he's gotten over the hump now."

Broadway Producer won his maiden in his 3-year-old finale at Aqueduct last Nov. 2, rallying from off the pace to a one-length victory in a race switched from the turf to the main track. He ran even better in his Gulfstream Park debut two months later, again finishing strongly from midpack en route to a l 1/4-length entry-level allowance triumph on the turf.

"I just tried anything I could with him, including the turf," said Terranova. "In the end, it just became a waiting game, trying to keep him healthy until everything started to click."

The pace scenario Thursday looks favorable for Broadway Producer, with Our Cat, Last Best Place, and Tiger Woodman likely to assure honest early fractions.

A quick pace would also enhance the chances of Mangiaracina, who finished a late-striding second in similar races in each of his last three starts. He rallied from ninth to lose to Bee Charmer by a length going 1 1/8 miles in his local bow on Jan. 10.

Trainer Bill Mott will send out the uncoupled pair of Seeking Slew and Zurich.

Seeking Slew has not started since finishing third in the Grade 3 Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes in June 2005 and may need a race. Zurich returned from a two-year hiatus of his own to finish a tiring eighth against third-level allowance rivals on Jan. 14.