Gangly at top of his game for allowance sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gangly has changed hands five times via the claim box over the last 19 months. But at the age of 6, he is as good as he’s ever been, and that figures to make him the solid favorite in Saturday’s 10th event at Gulfstream, the second of two $51,000 allowances contests on an 11-race program that begins at 12:40 p.m.

Gangly was haltered by trainer Peter Walder in the interest of owner Jack Armstrong late last summer and has had his races spaced judiciously ever since. That patient tactic has seen Gangly register a win and two seconds over his last four starts while having his Beyer Speed Figures rise progressively from 83 to a career high 94 in his most recent outing, an allowance sprint on March 11. Gangly finished second by a half-length in that race to the 2-1 favorite Starship Renegade, finishing a half-dozen lengths clear of third.

Gangly will turn back from 6 1/2 to six furlongs on Saturday while facing just six rivals: stablemate Create Again, the speedy King Cab, idled Maddy’s Dream, improved Sensei Lawrence, the 3-year-old Pouncival, and outsider High Yield Kitten.

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King Cab figures to set the pace, as usual, while looking to bounce back from a fifth-place finish, more than 14 lengths behind Gangly on March 11. That race was a major regression from his previous effort, when third against similar opposition while posting a 90 Beyer Figure four weeks earlier.

Maddy’s Dream has not started since easily defeating Gangly winning a statebred allowance dash here in June. The lightly raced 5-year-old has seven works for his return.

Sensei Lawrence has cycled back to his best form in his last two starts, running well in defeat last month against mid-level starter-allowance competition. Sensei Lawrence disputed a lively pace going seven furlongs and tired to finish fourth, 4 1/2 lengths back.

The afternoon’s eighth race is carded at a mile and one-sixteenth on the turf for 3-year-olds, with stakes winner Lights of Broadway likely to be the public’s choice against six others, four of whom are also stakes tested.

Lights of Broadway won the Armed Forces over the Tapeta course and was second in the Pulpit on turf to ring down his 2-year-old campaign. He was overmatched in the Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy on turf here in his 3-year-old debut. He exits an eighth-place finish in the Columbia Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and returns Saturday under a $75,000 claiming tag.

Swan Lake finished third after setting the early pace in Tampa’s Sophomore Turf for Florida-breds two weeks ago, and figures to contest the early running with Prudencio on Saturday.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will send out Calycanthus and Sendero, who exits a sixth-place finish in the Columbia.

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