Giant Run a cut above English Channel rivals
Giant Run is a front-running 3-year-old grass horse drawn inside other pace players who might make him work in the $75,000 English Channel Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. And it might not matter.
Giant Run has accomplished more than any of his English Channel rivals, and his edge in ability might be greater than the potentially negative consequences of a pressured front-end trip.
Giant Run is one of 12 entrants in the English Channel, carded for 1 1/16 miles on turf as the last of 10 races on a Kentucky Derby Day card. Turf racing was abandoned Wednesday after heavy rain fell early in the card, but nothing except sunny skies were forecast for south Florida all weekend, and the grass should be firm again Saturday.
Trained by Tom Albertrani, Giant Run is a Giant’s Causeway colt who has done little wrong the four times he’s raced on turf, twice winning and twice finishing second. After beating the talented Inspector Lynley in a maiden race in January, Giant Run tried the Grade 3 Palm Beach, where he pressed the pace, took the lead in upper stretch, and was caught late by the Chad Brown-trained Converge, who returned to finish a close fourth in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland.
In the $75,000 Cutler Bay on March 26, Giant Run set a moderate early tempo, then came home in negative splits and comfortably beat Highland Sky, a colt who’s probably more talented than anything in the English Channel.
Copingaway, Extravagant Kid, and Duffle Bag have early speed, but none of those horses can run with Giant Run early and expect to outfinish him. The Christophe Clement-trained Noble Quality looks all right and has the right kind of stalking style to make a move on Giant Run if the pace gets taxing, but he’s poorly drawn in post 12.
Many chances in Honey Ryder
There are eight 3-year-old fillies entered in the $75,000 Honey Ryder, the 1 1/16-mile sister turf race to the English Channel, and not an automatic toss-out among them.
Rontos Lilly could wind up mildly favored, but she’s not standing on solid ground. Still eligible for a first-level allowance race, Rontos Lilly has run well in her two recent grass starts, finishing second in the $75,000 Sanibel Island and in a first-level allowance race, but those starts came at distances a half-furlong and a furlong shorter than Saturday’s trip, and Rontos Lilly gives hints of wanting no more than a mile.
The pick is Winged Fury, who makes her stakes debut for trainer Chad Brown after finishing second as the favorite in a first-level turf allowance race March 23. That was Winged Fury’s fourth start, and she found herself in a far faster-paced race than she had yet encountered. Winged Fury got a good trip stalking the leaders, moved willingly to the lead around the turn and into the homestretch, but was quickly attacked by Auntie Joy, who pushed on the outside to win by more than two lengths.
Auntie Joy returned to finish a close, creditable fifth behind high-class Catch a Glimpse in the Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland, and Brown’s team might have learned in the race to wait as long as possible with Winged Fury. Expect her to be held up until just before the quarter pole this time before making her bid.
Brown has a second entrant, Noble Beauty, who makes her second career start after winning a $75,000 maiden claimer in February. She can’t be ruled out, nor can the Clement-trained Tampa Bay debut winner Ballinskelligs. Pancake won and placed in listed stakes at Fair Grounds this winter and came from farther off the pace than ever before when fifth in the Sanibel Island. She can do better than that – and handicappers will do well to find the winner in this tricky heat.