Carry Back a difficult comeback spot for Octane
Octane, the undisputed leader of the local 2-year-old division in 2021, has not found the easiest of spots for his much anticipated 3-year-old debut and will face a field that includes three horses who competed in the Grade 1 Florida Derby several months earlier along with the extremely fast King Cab in Saturday’s $75,000 Carry Back at Gulfstream Park.
Octane, an Arindel homebred, reeled off three consecutive victories to close his juvenile campaign, including relatively easy wins in the final two legs of the Florida Sire Series, the seven-furlong Affirmed and the 1 1/16-mile In Reality. He has been sidelined ever since while bringing a limited work tab into the Carry Back for trainer Carlos David that includes a near-bullet five furlongs in 59.20 seconds last Sunday at Palm Meadows.
“We didn’t stop on him last year because he had any issue, we just didn’t want to ship him to California for the Breeders’ Cup,” explained Brian Cohen, son of Arindel owner Alan Cohen. “But then he got sick on the farm and developed a little foot issue over the winter, so he didn’t return to Carlos’s barn until a couple of months ago. And he hasn’t rushed him, giving him several long gallops and just a couple of works, the last one so impressive that Carlos said he was ready for this race, which we’re hoping to use as a stepping-stone to a big second half of the season.”
Octane is one of two horses who will represent Arindel in the Carry Back along with Clapton, who has sandwiched a couple of relatively easy allowance wins around a 10th-place finish in the Florida Derby.
“We weren’t looking at this race for Clapton, but with King Cab in there along with Octane the pace could get really fast and we thought that could benefit him, with his running style,” Brian Cohen said.
Steal Sunshine and Strike Hard are the other two Florida Derby alumni in the lineup. Steal Sunshine rallied from a tough post to finish sixth in the marquee 3-year-old event of the local season, with Strike Hard finishing just a nose back in seventh in a race marred by a spill on the final turn.
Steal Sunshine returns to stakes company off a 2 1/4-length triumph going a mile under high-priced starter-allowance conditions in his most recent start, while Strike Hard turns back in distance off a fifth-place finish in the Texas Derby at Lone Star.
Both would figure to benefit from the lively pace likely to be provided by Octane and King Cab, who returns with 3-year-olds after having finished second against older horses in his last two starts. He most recently chased home Willy Boi, who flattered the race when he proved a popular winner of the Grade 3 Smile Sprint last weekend.
The stakes-winning Cattin, coming off a high-priced starter-allowance win of his own, Klugman, and Reddington round out the talented lineup.