English Bee calmer since being gelded
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s not often that you see a newly gelded 7-year-old in the entries – especially one with more than a half-million dollars in career earnings.
“It is unusual, yes,” trainer Graham Motion said of English Bee, a Calumet Farm homebred who returns Friday in the feature race at Gulfstream Park.
“He’s honestly one of our favorite horses in the barn because we’ve had him so long and he’s such a cool character and he’s such a hard-knocking horse,” Motion said earlier this week from his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center.
“I finally came to the conclusion that it didn’t make a lot of sense in him still being a stallion. This is the type of thing we’ve never done, because he’s always been a pretty kind horse. But he’d always been a little nervous, a worrier, and we just thought it would help him.”
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Male horses are typically gelded at a much younger age because the chances of increased bleeding and other secondary complications are considerably less than when they’ve fully matured. Fortunately, all has gone well for English Bee since he was gelded July 18, some two months after he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Dinner Party on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico.
“He’s not quite as anxious as he used to be,” said Motion.
English Bee, with Luis Saez riding, will break from post 5 in a field of eight older horses in the seventh of nine races, a one-mile turf race with hybrid allowance conditions. The purse is listed at $88,000, although that includes $14,000 in Florida-bred bonuses for which only Proven Strategies (post 7, Emma-Jayne Wilson) is eligible.
English Bee has had nine timed workouts since returning to training in the fall, the last three over the Palm Meadows turf. The son of English Channel will be looking to add to a record that includes three stakes wins from a 27-race career in which he has amassed a bankroll of $515,150.
Saez, meanwhile, returned to action Wednesday after being thrown hard to the turf in the eighth race Sunday, when the filly Bo Derek suffered a fatal breakdown with him aboard. The 30-year-old Panamanian jockey was “extremely lucky” to escape injury, said his agent, Kiaran McLaughlin.
English Bee figures among the middling wagering choices in a lineup that includes Mouillage (post 2, Irad Ortiz Jr.), a French import who has yet to win in three U.S. starts but already has earned a couple of Beyer Speed Figures – 97 and 95 – that figure to make him the favorite. Chad Brown is adding blinkers to his equipment.
Also, Red Danger (post 4, Jose Ortiz) will be treated with Lasix for the first time when making his 4-year-old debut. The Orb colt is the leading earner in the field with $540,212, much of that from a September 2021 stakes victory at Kentucky Downs.
First post Friday is 12:10 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 3:08. Sunshine and a high of 80 are in the local forecast, meaning all three turf races more than likely will go as scheduled.
A second allowance for older horses directly follows the feature as race 8. Nitrous Channel, runner-up here last winter in the Hutcheson Stakes, should be a solid choice under Saez when facing six others, including Giant Game. The $72,000, first-level allowance goes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track.
Sunshine Millions on tap
Ahead of the huge Pegasus World Cup card on Jan. 28, the next two Saturdays at Gulfstream will be highlighted by races in the Sunshine Millions series.
Fields for the $75,000 Filly and Mare Turf and the $75,000 Sprint already are set for this Saturday. They’ll be followed by the Classic and Turf next Saturday (Jan. 21), both of them also with $75,000 purses. All are restricted to Florida-breds.
The one-mile Filly and Mare Turf, the ninth of 11 races on a card that starts at 12:10 p.m., drew a competitive field of nine, with Avow, Sweet Dani Girl, and Sugar Fix the likely favorites. The Sprint (race 10) also looks well matched, with Gatsby, Unsociable, and Legends Can’t Die among the top contenders in a field of seven going six furlongs.
◗ Irad Ortiz Jr., the record-setting jockey who is heavily favored to be honored with his fourth Eclipse Award at the annual awards dinner Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, will serve a three-day suspension stemming from his ride on Expect More, who was disqualified from first to second for causing interference in the fifth race here Dec. 31. Ortiz will sit out the Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday cards.
◗ Jockeys Junior Alvarado and Tyler Gaffalione both began this week on the threshold of reaching the 2,000-win milestone. Into Wednesday, Alvarado needed four wins and Gaffalione needed five.
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