Charge It looks to take next step forward in Gulfstream Mile
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Charge It will be heavily favored to continue his ascent up the pecking order in the national handicap division when returning to graded stakes competition in Saturday’s $200,000 Gulfstream Park Mile.
Despite the imposing presence of last year’s Florida Derby runner-up, the Grade 2 fixture drew a field of nine older horses, including Simplification who is seeking to improve on a very disappointing 10th-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational here five weeks earlier.
Charge It turned in a couple of Jekyll and Hyde performances to close his abbreviated 3-year-old campaign following the Florida Derby, finishing a distant 17th, 28 lengths behind Rich Strike, in the Kentucky Derby before returning two months later with an eye-catching 23-length tour de force in the Grade 3 Dwyer at Belmont Park for which he earned a 111 Beyer Speed Figure. An entrapped epiglottis was blamed for his poor effort in the Derby, with foot issues putting a premature end to his 3-year-old season following the Dwyer.
Charge It finally made his eagerly awaited return to the races here Feb. 5, posting a very popular and workmanlike 1 1/2-length victory going a mile under allowance conditions with jockey Luis Saez appearing to have plenty left in the tank approaching the wire. The homebred son of Tapit owned by Whisper Hill Farm has had a couple of easy half-mile breezes at Palm Beach Downs since that outing.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out the best schedule to get him ready for our major goals, which are the Met Mile and Whitney,” trainer Todd Pletcher explained. “I’m a little concerned running back in four weeks, but he’s trained so well, he really seems to like it here, and this race puts him on a path for the Oaklawn Handicap on April 22, which then gives us good spacing to the Met Mile.”
Simplification trained extremely well going into the Pegasus World Cup following a third-place effort in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday but turned in a very dull performance, tiring badly to finish a distant 10th after fanning extremely wide on the final bend. Trainer Antonio Sano has opted to make a rider change for the Gulfstream Mile, reuniting Simplification with Jose Ortiz.
Ortiz guided Simplification to an easy victory in the 2022 Fountain of Youth; a third-place finish, just a length behind Charge It, in the Florida Derby; and to a fourth after rallying from far back in the Kentucky Derby.
Endorsed, Octane, Dean Delivers, and Noble Drama, the first four finishers in that order in the Grade 2 Fred Hooper on Pegasus Day, will meet again in the Gulfstream Mile.
Endorsed parlayed a perfect trip from out in arguably the better footing away from the rail into a convincing 2 3/4-length victory under Saez, who understandably abandons ship to take his regular seat on Charge It. Tyler Gaffalione, who guided Endorsed to an allowance victory in his previous start for trainer Mike Maker, figures to provide a very suitable replacement.
Octane is another horse for the course, having finished first or second in seven of his nine local starts. He raced down near the inside in what appeared the deeper footing in the Hooper but held very gamely to withstand Dean Delivers by a nose to earn second money after striking the front briefly in early stretch.
Steal Sunshine stretches back to perhaps his preferred distance after finishing a late-running third in the seven-furlong Grade 3 Mr. Prospector earlier in the meet. The field also includes O Captain, idle since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on last year’s Kentucky Derby undercard, and the lightly raced but talented Nitrous Channel.
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