HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The weather in South Florida this winter hasn’t been the greatest, with rain and chill visiting a little too frequently, especially the last few weeks. The spring-break throngs are none too pleased. For Jose D’Angelo, however, it’s been sunshine and rainbows. A couple of recent hot streaks at Gulfstream Park has the 31-year-old trainer on pace for a breakthrough year, and he can hardly contain his joy. “Everything is going perfect right now,” D’Angelo, a Venezuela native who ran his first winner in the U.S. in June 2019, said early this week by phone from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales 2-year-olds in training auction. Horses trained by D’Angelo went 6 for 10 at Gulfstream from Feb. 23-27, and then after an 0-for-5 week, he was 4 for 7 last week (March 9-13), including his first stakes winner, Headline Hunter in the Captiva Island on Saturday. D’Angelo began a new race week Wednesday with 22 wins from 82 starts when crashing the top five of the Gulfstream trainer standings at the four-month championship meet. The Captiva Island, transferred off the turf to the Tapeta following a hard mid-card rain, typified the lucky run D’Angelo is on, given how Headline Hunter, a 4-year-old Tapizar filly, is now 4 for 5 on synthetic. :: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now! “My first stakes win, and I am so happy,” said D’Angelo, who is based year-round at the Palm Meadows training center about an hour north of Gulfstream. D’Angelo also has won with 5 of his last 9 runners with a shorter string of horses stabled this winter at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky. Next month, he’ll be sending three of his more capable runners from Florida – Queen Macha, Dark Timber, and Classicstateofmind – to run at the spring meet at Keeneland when looking to further his profile on a national level. D’Angelo, who won a career-high 29 races last year, already had 21 wins through the first 72 days of 2022. “We’re working hard at the barn, always looking to put the horse on the right spot,” he said. “We do everything we can to make sure the horse is good and ready for each race.” Meanwhile, D’Angelo is still awaiting the green light to return Jesus’ Team, his stable star of the last two years, to serious training. Jesus’ Team came to prominence as a 3-year-old and in December 2020 won the Claiming Crown Jewel at Gulfstream – technically, that was the first stakes win for D’Angelo, depending on who’s counting – prior to being injured last summer with his bankroll standing at $1.34 million, most of that sum from runner-up finishes in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (with a 102 Beyer Speed Figure) and 2021 Pegasus World Cup (105 Beyer). D’Angelo said Jesus’ Team, a 5-year-old horse by Tapiture, had an ankle chip removed following his most recent start Aug. 6 at Saratoga, then “nearly died” after contracting salmonella. “He’s back doing good, walking the shed row” at Palm Meadows, said D’Angelo. “We are looking at him going back to the track in the next week.” ◗ The standout turf sprinter Imprimis will make his 8-year-old debut Saturday when facing Arrest Me Red, Chess Master, and Yes I Am Free in the Silks Run, one of three $100,000 sprint stakes on a 12-race card. The Silks Run, scheduled for five furlongs on the turf, will share the weekend spotlight with the Hutcheson and Any Limit, both six-furlong races for 3-year-olds. Nitrous Channel and Lightening Larry were among the colts expected for the Hutcheson when entries were drawn Wednesday afternoon, while Strategic Bird and Spirit Wind will head the Any Limit lineup. ◗ Letruska, the reigning filly-mare champion, had her first work since she won the Feb. 26 Royal Delta in her 6-year-old debut, breezing a half-mile in a bullet 47.60 seconds Sunday at Palm Meadows. The Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 23 is next.