In Due Time back after a one-year layoff

In Due Time, idle since his third-place finish in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland one year ago, will finally return to the races Thursday at Gulfstream Park when he tops a field of older allowance horses in the $52,000 feature, carded at six furlongs on the dirt.

The field for the main event also includes Willy Boi, winless since a victory in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint here nine months earlier; Florida-bred stakes winner Gatsby; and the much-improved Celestial Glaze off a fourth-place finish earlier this month in the Sir Shackleton Stakes.

In Due Time returned from nearly six months on the sidelines to finish third in an allowance race here to open his 3-year-old campaign in January 2022 before coming back to win a similarly conditioned event going a mile by 5 3/4 lengths four weeks later. That effort earned In Due Time a ticket into the Fountain of Youth, and he rallied from midpack after some early trouble to finish second, 3 1/2 lengths behind runaway winner Simplification.

:: Get ready for Gulfstream Park racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.

In Due Time then was beaten 2 1/2 lengths in the Lexington and went to the sidelines.

“We’re hoping this will be a springboard to some nice races during the summer and fall,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “He got a break after the Lexington, which lasted a little longer than we thought. But he looks and is training great. He needed a race when we ran him for the first time here last year, and if he needs one this time too, so be it. As well as he’s working, I’m still not anticipating him to run 100 percent off a year layoff. He’ll head back north right after this, and we’ll plot a little campaign for the summer and fall. Hopefully, he will come back for us as good as or even better than he was last year.”

Willy Boi is winless in five starts since his one-length triumph in the 2022 Smile Sprint, for which he received a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure. Last November, he raced prominently for the opening half-mile and finished 10th in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. His last two starts resulted in off-the board-finishes in a pair of stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Gatsby, who finished five lengths in front of Willy Boi when third in Tampa’s Pelican Stakes on Feb. 11, is back at his favorite track on Thursday. All five of his wins and five of his six second-place finishes have come at Gulfstream.

Celestial Glaze posted back-to-back victories earlier this year, including an allowance tally for which he posted a career-topping 97 Beyer on Feb. 12. The streak was halted when he was beaten 2 1/2 lengths after a wide trip in the Sir Shackleton.

Zayas released from hospital

Jockey Edgard Zayas was discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours after escaping a frightening incident in Sunday’s fifth race with only minor injuries. Zayas was unseated from his mount, the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Chapalu, who apparently clipped heels entering the clubhouse turn of the turf race. Zayas appeared to be run over by several other horses in the field.

“He has no apparent injuries other than a mico-fracture in his jaw for which he will not need surgery,” Zayas’s agent, Tito Fuentes, said Monday.

When Zayas will return to the saddle remains a question. He was already slated to serve a five-day suspension beginning with Thursday’s card and was not scheduled to return until a week from Friday.

“He has to see a specialist for his jaw once he’s released from the hospital today, so it’s still up in the air when he’ll return,” Fuentes said. “Although it should not be long.”

Zayas has suffered several severe injuries in racing-related spills, including a fractured clavicle in July 2015 and a fractured femur at Gulfstream in January 2019. He also was sidelined for the 2022 Championship meet after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to his left shoulder, which popped out on him during a race at Gulfstream Park in July 2021.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.