D'Angelo holds strong hand in pair of turf sprints
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.– A pair of allowance/optional-claiming events carded at five furlongs on the turf will bookend Friday’s nine-race program at Gulfstream Park, and as seems to be the case more and more often here lately, trainer Jose D’Angelo has entered horses that figure prominently in both of them.
D’Angelo will send out Mr Tyson to make his turf debut in Friday’s opener, which drew a field of seven 3-year-olds including likely odds-on favorite No Evidence for trainer Christophe Clement.
Mr Tyson will finally get on the grass in his sixth career start, having had two previous attempts to try turf washed onto the Tapeta course during his 2-year-old campaign. Mr Tyson, a son of Honest Mischief, finally earned his diploma in his juvenile finale over the synthetic track against Florida-breds here on Dec. 20. He was subsequently sidelined three months before finally launching his 3-year-old season by finishing a tiring third over the main track against statebred allowance opposition on March 27.
“We gelded him prior to his last start and he needed the race while competing over a surface we know is not his best,” D’Angelo said. “We know he’s going to be much better on the grass, like he showed in his most recent work at Palm Meadows.”
Indeed, Mr Tyson sizzled over the Palm Meadows turf course last Friday in preparation for Friday’s outing, working four furlongs in 45.75 seconds, easily the best of 29 drills at the distance on that morning’s work tab.
“He did it easy, he loves the grass, and he should run much better the second time back,” D’Angelo enthused. “He’s got a good post on the outside, everything looks good for him, although obviously Clement’s horse [No Evidence] is the one to beat.”
No Evidence has made all three of his career starts on turf. He has improved with each successive outing, including a second-place finish, beaten a neck by D’Angelo’s fast-closing Incanto, in the Texas Glitter Stakes here on March 22 for which he earned a career best 78 Beyer Speed Figure. No Evidence prompted the pace of another D’Angelo trainee, the stakes-placed Gabaldon, and ultimately took the lead between calls at midstretch before being run down in the final strides.
Most Handsome, a stakes winner at 2 and an even-running fifth in the Texas Glitter, figures to garner plenty of support in a field that also includes Fire Pit, off a series of sharp main-track works, Front End, Lazio, and Epitaph.
D’Angelo will return with Condora in the afternoon’s finale, which is restricted to older Florida-bred fillies and mares competing for a $43,000 purse.
Condora will be making her first start since being transferred to D’Angelo, and comes into the race idle since mid-August. A 4-year-old daughter of Valiant Minister, Condora has won three of seven career starts, including an entry-level allowance/optional-claiming race on the grass in wire-to-wire fashion for which she earned a career-best 80 Beyer here last summer.
“She’s a very fast filly and doing extremely well off the layoff,” said D’Angelo. “There’s a chance she might need the race, although I’ve done all I can to make sure she was sharp for her return. And we’re not going to try to hide our strategy with her. The plan is to send her straight for the lead.”
Condora is one of several multiple winners in the lineup along with Baby Blocks, the likely favorite, who will face Florida-breds for just the second time in her career. Trained by Blake Kelly, Baby Blocks is coming off a game, half-length decision over the 6-5 Royally Blue going 5 1/2 furlongs on the Tapeta strip. She has already won three times on grass but has yet to hit the board in four tries over the local course.
The field features three other fillies coming off victories in their most recent starts, Happy Ride, Bal de Mar, and Uncaptured Dove.
◗ D’Angelo reported that Gabaldon, second in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot at 2, was sent to the farm after his third-place finish in the Texas Glitter to have throat surgery and will be pointed for a summer campaign at Saratoga. He also noted that Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Bentornato, who has been sidelined ever since due to bone bruising, recently resumed training at Palm Meadows and will be given ample time before returning to the races during the summer.
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