With exhibition season finished, Imperial Hint ready for the real thing

Imperial Hint won his 5-year-old debut as easily as he pleased Sunday, setting him up for what trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. hopes is a championship year.

Imperial Hint, owned by Raymond Mamone, was a five-length winner of the $100,000 Florida Cup Sprint on the 16th annual Florida Cup program Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs. Carvajal said he has planned two more works for Imperial Hint before shipping him around April 20 to Kentucky for the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the May 5 Kentucky Derby undercard.

Imperial Hint had gone unraced since finishing second to Roy H in the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

“He came back from the layoff in great shape,” Carvajal said. “It was really nice to see the way he did it. We knew he was doing good, but you’re always a little nervous about them being off. I’m really happy.”

Carvajal said that before the Breeders’ Cup last fall, Mamone, a retired auto-body shop owner from Somerville, N.J., entertained an offer for Imperial Hint before finally turning it down.

“This is his dream horse,” Carvajal said. “Mr. Mamone has been in the horse business for 40 years. It’s hard to find one like him.”

In the Florida Cup Sprint, Imperial Hint broke cleanly to lay just off the early pace, made the front, and was never seriously threatened by his five opponents, with jockey Javier Castellano never asking him for his best. His winning time of 1:10.78 for six furlongs equated to a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, snapping a streak of six straight triple-digit Beyers for the horse, but Carvajal believes it was an ideal setup for the seven-furlong Churchill Downs.

“We will get there early enough to have one good work over the track,” he said.

As a 3-year-old, Imperial Hint ran in the Pat Day Mile on the 2016 Derby undercard, fading to 12th in just his third start.

“We found afterward he was a little sick that day, and he went too fast early,” Carvajal said. “We had an excuse. But he is a different horse now, anyway.”

Imperial Hint, by Imperialism, has won 9 of 14 starts and $875,155, with the BC Sprint being his lone defeat last year. A return to the BC Sprint, to be run in early November at Churchill, is the year-end goal for 2018.

Castellano, meanwhile, became the first jockey to take four Florida Cup Day races in a single afternoon by also winning three of the other five races, with Florida Fuego (Sophomore Fillies), Swagger Jagger (Turf Classic), and Madame Uno (Distaff Turf). Castellano broke the previous record of three wins, held by Elvis Trujillo (2010), Daniel Centeno (2008), and Eddie Castro (2006).

Trainers David Fawkes and Mark Casse both had two Florida Cup winners Sunday, when 5,425 turned out in sunny weather.

◗ The stakes portion of the five-month-plus 2017-18 meet has been nearly completed, with just a pair of $100,000 statebred races scheduled for the penultimate day of the meet, May 5. The meet closes the following day, not counting the June 30 and July 1 cards that Tampa will run again this year in accordance with state regulations.

◗ After sending out seven winners over four racing days last week, Gerald Bennett has finally pushed past Kathleen O’Connell for the lead atop the trainer standings. Into Wednesday action, Bennett led O’Connell by a 37-35 count.

◗ A nine-race Friday card lacking so much as one allowance will start at 12:44 p.m. Eastern. There is no racing Sunday at Tampa because of the Easter holiday.