Clearly Now back home to prepare for Smile Sprint

Gulfstream Park track record holder Clearly Now will see local action again soon. Trainer Ron Faucheux said Clearly Now is being pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Smile Sprint on July 1.

Faucheux said Clearly Now is back at Gulfstream following last weekend’s Grade 2 Churchill Downs. Clearly Now had his fair share of trouble in the race and finished sixth, three lengths behind winner Limousine Liberal.

“He was bumped out of the gate pretty bad,” Faucheux said. “He got shuffled much farther back than we wanted, [then] had to check a bit at the top of the stretch. Once he got a clear run, he really exploded.

“I think we would have been right there if we wouldn’t have gotten bumped out of the gate.”

Clearly Now set a track record for seven-eighths in his last Gulfstream appearance. He ran the distance in 1:20.17 in an optional $62,500 claiming race on the Florida Derby undercard April 1, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 104.

Clearly Now races for Brittlyn Stable and will attempt to give the outfit a second win in the Smile Sprint. Brittlyn and Faucheux won the race when it was run at Calder in 2012 with Gantry.

Faucheux, a 34-year-old native of New Orleans, is a new face this year at Gulfstream. He sent 12 horses to town from Louisiana, with his latest Gulfstream winner Tough Customer in an optional $25,000 claiming route last Friday.

Faucheux’s operation is based at the Evangeline Training Center in Lafayette, La., and those horses are currently racing at nearby Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La. That track has delayed the opening of its turf course, and Faucheux said he moved the majority of the stable’s “open-bred turf horses” to Gulfstream.

Faucheux also felt that at Gulfstream, he would have a better chance of getting some higher-end races to fill for certain members of his stable like Clearly Now.

“I have some Louisiana owners that needed this other option to run horses,” he said. “Gulfstream seemed like a really good option for us.”

Faucheux also was familiar with Gulfstream, having raced at the track and at Calder back in 2010, when he worked as a private trainer for Frank Calabrese.