Delgado puts off Valiant Force's dirt debut for another turf sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Valiant Force, whose eagerly anticipated main-track debut was put off once when he was scratched at the gate as the 1-5 favorite prior to the Limehouse Stakes earlier this month, will likely have to wait a little longer before getting the opportunity to strut his stuff on dirt.

Although many anticipated Saturday’s seven-furlong Swale Stakes to be next on the agenda for Valiant Force, trainer Jorge Delgado opted to bypass the race to run over a more familiar surface, the turf, in a five-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park early next week.

Valiant Force won his maiden in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot at odds of 150-1 last June and was finishing best of all before falling a half-length short of upsetting the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in his 2-year-old finale. Valiant Force was trained by Adrian Murray during his juvenile campaign before being transferred by his owner, Amo Racing, to trainer Jorge Delgado when shipped to the United States for his 3-year-old season.

“The original idea was to run him next on dirt,” Delgado said. “The first race [the Limehouse] was the right race for him, but unfortunately it did not work out. The Swale was up next here, but unfortunately it wasn’t the distance we wanted for him right now. It’s just a little too far for the way we’ve been training him at the moment, and I need to find a race he can win.

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“I can’t miss, because expectations are so high. That’s why we are thinking about entering him today [Wednesday] for an allowance race on the grass next Wednesday. Hopefully, it will fill, he gets in, and then if all goes well we can look for a race on dirt in March.”

Valiant Force has trained extremely well over the main track here for the last several months. Included on his work résumé is an easy half-mile in 47.53 seconds on Jan. 13 when matching strides throughout with Olivia Darling, who used that breeze as a stepping-stone to her relatively easy victory here last Saturday in the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes.

“He worked pretty good with Olivia Darling,” Delgado said. “We’ve been trying to give him different situations in the morning, put him inside, put him outside other horses. And he’s handled everything very well.”

Delgado may have paid Valiant Force the ultimate compliment when asked to compare him to the freakishly fast New York Thunder, who appeared on his way to a fifth straight easy victory for Delgado before breaking down suddenly and tragically in late stretch of the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens last summer at Saratoga.

“At this stage, I think he’s doing better, doing things more impressively than New York Thunder, who was just really starting to develop at this time last year,” Delgado said.

Delgado also is high on the chances of another promising 3-year-old in his barn, Madame Mischief, who will be among the choices in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sweetest Chant, a 1 1/16-mile turf race. Madame Mischief, also owned by Amo Racing, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Ginger Brew on Jan. 6.

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“Last time, she bumped a little bit with the winner [Ozara] or I think she definitely could have been second,” Delgado said. “She’s been training magnificently since the race, and I really think she’ll benefit from the extra sixteenth when she runs on Saturday.”

◗ The richest and potentially most interesting race on Friday’s nine-race program is an $89,000 maiden special weight dash for 3-year-olds scheduled for five furlongs on the turf.

The race drew a field of eight that includes likely favorites Test Factor and Bourbon Boss along with a trio of first-time starters led by trainer Todd Pletcher’s Refuel, a son of Hard Spun owned by the partnership of St. Elias Stable and Repole Stable. Refuel is a half-brother to four-time Grade 1-placed Following Sea.

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