Classic Rock appears tuned up for comeback

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s been a long time since a mid-week program at Gulfstream Park featured five allowance races, but that will be the case here Wednesday when Christmas comes early for local horsemen with $363,000 in purse money up for grabs on the 10-race card.

The best of the day’s five allowance races is a second-level allowance and high-priced optional-claiming dash offering a $51,000 purse. The six-furlong race lured a field of six, including a pair of stakes-caliber sprinters, Classic Rock and Sheikh of Sheikhs, both of whom are coming off an extended vacation.

Classic Rock has not started since finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Carry Back here on July 1. The stakes-winning 3-year-old has had local clockers rechecking their watches prepping for his return, posting a series of bullet works over the past four weeks, including five furlongs in 58.40 on Dec. 8. Classic Rock is trained by Kathy Ritvo for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, the same owner-trainer duo that combined to win the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Mucho Macho Man.

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“He had a tough campaign earlier in the season, including a long trip to California during which he got sick and was forced to miss a race, so we just decided he needed a little time off to grow up and mature after the Carry Back,” said Ritvo. “Right now he’s working as good as ever, if not better. All of his works have been fast but well within himself. He’s as good a work horse as I’ve ever seen, and that includes Mucho Macho Man.”

Ritvo will take blinkers off her speedster for his return. She had Classic Rock nominated for Saturday’s Grade 3 Mr. Prospector, but opted for the easier spot on Wednesday.

“He’s been working without blinkers and working so professionally I just felt he didn’t need them anymore in the afternoon, either,” Ritvo said. “I could have run him in the stakes this weekend, but I wanted to give him a bit of a confidence booster first time back if I could, before asking him to take on stakes competition again.”

Sheikh of Sheikhs is also a stakes winner and was Grade 3-placed in the Hutcheson here during the winter of 2016 when trained by Wesley Ward. Sheikh of Sheikhs has passed through several hands since, and was gelded after his last start, which came on Dec. 31, 2016 at Aqueduct in a similarly conditioned optional-claiming dash. The 4-year-old son of Discreetly Mine is with Mike Maker and been working well at Palm Meadows for his return.

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Icatiro, who was haltered for $40,000 out of his previous start, Tyler U, and longshot Thanks God complete the field.

Classic Rock, Icatiro, and Thanks God were all nominated to the Mr. Prospector, the only stakes carded here this weekend. The race will feature the return of X Y Jet, who makes his first start since finishing third as the prohibitive favorite 13 months earlier at Laurel in the Grade 3 De Francis Dash. X Y Jet had his final tune-up for the race on Sunday, working five furlongs from the gate in 1:01 at Gulfstream Park West for trainer Jorge Navarro.

Fast Friar, an allowance winner here last winter, is also among the nominees for the six-furlong Mr. Prospector. He worked four furlongs in 49.65 at Gulfstream on Monday.