Doctor Mounty rallies to take Tropical Turf
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- What a difference a week makes.
Seven days after his top 3-year-old prospect Code of Honor finished a tiring fourth as the odds-on favorite in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes, trainer Shug McGaughey returned to Gulfstream Park to send out Doctor Mounty to a one-length victory over Your Only Man in Saturday’s $100,000, Grade 3 Tropical Turf. Heart to Heart, the even-money favorite, finished a disappointing third after having his best chances compromised by a poor start.
Doctor Mounty, who finished eighth against a stellar field in the Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale earlier in the meet, was taken back to the rear of the field by jockey Javier Castellano following an alert start. The 6-year-old son of Street Sense had only one horse beaten when angling out to commence his rally at the top of the stretch, finishing full of run down the center of the course to overtake the leaders and win going clear.
Your Only Man tipped out in early stretch and rallied mildly to nip Heart to Heart by a nose to be second. The latter tossed his head back at the start, rushed up five wide into the first turn, ultimately rallying to a short lead in early stretch before succumbing to the top pair at the end.
Doctor Mounty, a Grade 3 winner at Laurel last fall, is trained by McGaughey for the partnership of Larry Pratt and Dave Alden. He completed a mile over a firm course in 1:34.62 and paid $12.
"His last race, he didn’t run that bad. It was just too tough. He was 70-1. Today, he’s 5-1,” said McGaughey. “He only got beat eight lengths and there were five Grade 1 winners in the race. I’ve been a little bit puzzled about how far he wants to run. Today, the big thing was to get him relaxed. Javier got him to relax and when he gets that, he finishes up like he did today.”
