Delta Bluesman the big name in optional claimer

MIAMI – Thursday’s main event, a $47,000 optional-claiming dash at six furlongs, will mark the local return of the venerable Delta Bluesman, still going strong at the age of 8 for trainer Jorge Navarro.

Delta Bluesman is no stranger to Gulfstream Park West, having run here seven times while still a maiden when the track was still known as Calder Race Course. He also competed in claiming races here as a 4-year-old and was claimed by Navarro for $30,000 out of a winning effort in October 2014. Delta Bluesman has since gone on to become a Grade 2 winner and compete in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup. He has lifetime earnings of more than $727,000, with 13 wins from 59 starts to date.

Delta Bluesman, who’ll compete under a $25,000 claiming tag Thursday, enters the race idle since finishing fifth and last against a high-level field of optional-claiming foes Sept. 29 at Belmont Park. He won the Rail Splitter starter-allowance stakes across town at Gulfstream Park in February.

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A field of 10 has been entered in the main event, although Musical Heart and Mr. Kisses are likely to scratch after finishing first and third, respectively, as main-track-only entrants in Sunday’s headliner. That would likely leave Scam, Colormepompom, and Storming My Way as Delta Bluesman’s top competition along with the multiple stakes-placed 3-year-old Aequor.

Scam will be ridden by Paco Lopez, whose sensational five-stakes-win performance on Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Preview card vaulted him into clear possession of second place in the jockey standings for the session behind Edgard Zayas. One week earlier, Lopez had an even more memorable day when registering his first Breeders’ Cup victory aboard Roy H in the Sprint.