Gargan duo appear evenly matched
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The key question to answer coming into Sunday’s featured sixth event at Gulfstream Park may not be if trainer Danny Gargan will win the race, but with which of his two last-out maiden winners, Riot House or La Maquina, will he do it. The $51,000 headliner drew a field of just six 3-year-olds to go a mile on the turf and is the first of two allowance events on a 10-race Easter program that begins at 1:05 p.m.
Riot House won an early battle with Khufu and then withstood a rail-skimming closing surge from Causin’ Mayhem to register a well-deserved neck victory going 7 1/2 furlongs on the grass in his third career start here March 12. The win was all the more impressive considering Riot House was coming into the race off a near nine-month layoff while trying two turns for the first time.
Riot House, a son of Violence, is out of the Irish-bred mare Tuttipaesi, a Grade 2 stakes winner of more than $500,000 who also had a fondness for the local turf course, having won a pair of graded stakes at Gulfstream during her racing career. Riot House earned a 75 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance, two points short of the best last-out number in this field registered by La Maquina a couple of weeks earlier.
La Maquina has shown improvement with each of his three career outings, peaking with a game win of his own Feb. 26 over the well-backed Chad Brown first-time starter Growth Capital, who was sent postward as the 8-5 favorite. La Maquina set a contested pace, ultimately shook off an early challenge from longshot Fredo approaching the stretch, and then re-asserted himself when headed briefly by Growth Capital near midstretch to prevail by a half-length. A son of Quality Road, La Maquina had lost a similarly grueling stretch-long battle with Moms Moon in his previous try.
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Another question to be answered in the headliner is whether In the Union will take to the turf, a move perhaps made out of desperation by trainer Todd Pletcher following the lightly raced youngster’s extremely disappointing fifth-place finish behind Skippylongstocking under allowance conditions here March 2. In the Union, who launched his career with two solid efforts at Tampa Bay Downs, was never a factor in his local bow, ultimately finishing 29 lengths behind Skippylongstocking, who did flatter the race when returning to finish third in the Wood Memorial.
Unfortunately, In the Union’s breeding does anything but scream turf. He is by Union Rags, whose offspring win at less than a 6 percent rate on grass, and is the first foal to make the races out of the mare Munasara, who never tried the surface during her career.
Tampa Bay Downs invader Night Jumper comes off a career-best effort, a solid fourth-place finish as a 93-1 outsider in the Columbia Stakes, for which he received a 67 Beyer. He looms an intriguing alternative to the favorites while racing with blinkers for the first time Sunday.
Outsiders Vladislav and Desert Ruler, making his turf debut, complete the compact lineup.