Claimer's traveling days may finally end

The streak could finally end Saturday.

Dunkin Bend, a 5-year-old gray horse, has been claimed from each of his last seven starts at Gulfstream Park in south Florida, but his newest trainer, Daniel Gazader, doesn’t think anyone will submit a claim Saturday.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Gazader, a former riding champion in his native Jamaica. “He’s run bad his last two times, and he has problems people know about. He’s got a suspensory, and he’s a non-sweater. I was the only trainer to put in a claim for him last time.”

Nonetheless, it’s been a remarkable run to this point.

Since Jorge Navarro claimed him from Jose Garoffalo on March 19, Dunkin Bend has gone home to a new barn after every one of six subsequent races – each time for the Gulfstream minimum of $6,250 and sometimes after two or more trainers dropped a claim slip for him, necessitating a “shake.” The Kentucky-bred is entered Saturday in the third race, again for a $6,250 tag.

Gazader will give a leg up on Dunkin Bend to his son, Rayan, prior to the 5 1/2-furlong race. The younger Gazader has had four winners from 89 mounts since starting his career last October and therefore still rides with a 10-pound apprentice allowance.

Daniel Gazader, 53, was a mentor in their homeland to Shaun Bridgmohan, who has enjoyed an outstanding career since he began riding in the United States in 1997. Bridgmohan, currently active at Saratoga, has won more than 2,900 races and $123 million in mount earnings while competing primarily in New York and Kentucky.

“I started Shaun from scratch,” said Gazader, who more recently has worked on farms in Ocala, Fla., and was an assistant to Randi Persaud before Persaud regrouped most of his stable back to New York in May. “I’m very proud of how he has done.”

◗ Three allowance races anchor a 12-race Saturday program at Gulfstream, with the most competitive of them going as race 10. It’s a $43,000, first-level race at a mile on turf, with no clear-cut favorite in a field of nine older horses, plus one for the main track only. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

The four-day race week began Thursday at Gulfstream with a Rainbow 6 carryover of just $6,871 after the jackpot was swept last Saturday for $411,188 by a bettor in Oklahoma. The Rainbow 6 sequence Saturday is on races 7-12.

The next stakes day of note at Gulfstream is Sept. 3, when the second of three legs in the Florida Sire Stakes series will be held.

◗ Trainer David Braddy began this week at Gulfstream just two wins shy of the 1,000-win milestone. Braddy sent out his first winner in 1981 and has been a mainstay of the south Florida circuit for years. He had one entry for Friday and none for Saturday.