Fully Loaded has pace edge in Affirmed

Jose Pinchin trained Three Rules to a romping sweep of the three Florida Sire Stakes races for colts and geldings in 2016, and right up until he came to the three-sixteenths pole in the Dr. Fager division of the FSS on Aug. 4, Fully Loaded looked like this year’s version of Three Rules.

The Pinchin-trained Fully Loaded beat open maidens by just less than a length in his career debut and proceeded to win an open first-level allowance race by more than seven lengths in July. In the Dr. Fager, he pressed stablemate Jackson through a fast pace, but appeared to be going easily at the top of the stretch – until he wasn’t.

Fully Loaded made the lead under a hand ride but went nowhere when asked for something more, drifted out, and was beaten a neck by Cajun Firecracker. Adding insult to injury, he was disqualified to third after forcing Cajun Firecracker into the path of third-place finisher Garter and Tie.

The six-furlong Dr. Fager was Fully Loaded’s longest race, and given his lack of late punch, it’s hard to see him doing much better going seven furlongs Saturday in the $200,000 Affirmed division of the FSS.

But don’t write him off. Fully Loaded might not be of Three Rules’s quality, but Jackson isn’t running Saturday, and Fully Loaded could wind up the controlling speed under new rider Nik Juarez.

Other than the fact they might simply have more stamina than Fully Loaded, there’s not a lot of obvious reasons to love either Cajun Firecracker or Garter and Tie in the Affirmed. Both horses now are trained by Ralph Nicks, whose barn Cajun Firecracker joined after being privately purchased by owners William and Corinne Heiligbrodt following his Dr. Fager win.

Cajun Firecracker, who won a short maiden race in his debut, came under a full drive before the quarter pole in the Dr. Fager, and it was more a case of Fully Loaded losing the race than Cajun Firecracker pushing hard to take it from him.

Garter and Tie raced wider around the turn in the Dr. Fager, but he, too, came home with essentially a one-paced finish and wasn’t badly compromised by what Gulfstream stewards ruled was a disqualifying infraction by Fully Loaded.

Michael Yates bred, owned, and trained Cajun Firecracker before selling following the Dr. Fager, but he might have another live chance Saturday in Cajun Embers, who rallied from 10th last out and was finishing best in the Dr. Fager.

The Affirmed is the last of 13 races Saturday, with post time scheduled for 6:36 p.m. Eastern.

Capture Your Dream no cinch

Capture Your Dream won the $100,000 Desert Vixen on Aug. 4 as an odds-on favorite and is the 4-5 morning-line choice Saturday in the $200,000 Susan’s Girl division of the FSS. But her chances might not he as strong as her price is short.

Capture Your Dream was a dominant debut winner over 4 1/2 furlongs in May, prompting her partial sale, but she came under a hard ride during a perfect pressing trip to win the Susan’s Girl by 1 1/4 lengths. Perhaps Capture Your Dream just knew her work was done for the day, but she shut down quickly past the wire and quickly was passed on the gallop-out by runner-up Select Friday.

Select Friday broke from post 1 and had to switch outside and come with a late run last month, but on Saturday it’s Capture Your Dream with an inside draw and Select Friday with a good draw in post 5, and the Susan’s Girl’s seven-furlong distance might further enhance Select Friday’s chances. At something close to her 5-1 morning-line odds she is worth a play.

A new face in the FSS worth considering at a price is Jessica, who makes her second start after overcoming the rail draw to score a going-away debut win on July 28.

Post time for the Susan’s Girl, carded as race 11, is 5:30.

Juvenile stakes top undercard

Trainer Jonathan Thomas just hit a career peak in winning the Grade 1 Travers with Catholic Boy. Much less is at stake Saturday at Gulfstream, but Thomas does have the horse to beat, Entirely, in the $100,000 Sharp Susan Stakes, the first of two one-mile grass stakes for 2-year-olds on the card.

Entirely was a sharp debut winner June 1 sprinting over the Gulfstream turf before finishing fourth as the favorite about a month later racing over Tapeta at Woodbine in the My Dear Girl Stakes. Back on grass, Entirely need only stay the mile – a distance she’s bred to handle – to give Thomas another stakes win.

The Sharp Susan (race 6, 2:37) is for fillies, while the $100,000 Proud Man (race 12, 6:03) is an open juvenile race – open both in terms of race conditions and competitiveness.

None of the 10 horses entered for turf has so much as competed in a stakes, and none has won more than a maiden race. The pair with the highest speed figures, Timmy M. and Harry’s Ontheloose, are poorly drawn on the far outside, and bettors would be well advised to cast a wide net in late horizontal wagers.