Go Cristian Go in top form for Turf Dash

Go Cristian Go needed 13 tries to win his maiden and has won only two races – that maiden claimer and an optional claimer.

However, those two wins have come consecutively, and the most recent was a four-length score in the optional claimer designated as the local prep for the $100,000 Turf Dash at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday. His $78.60 upset earned him a shot in the race, which has drawn a full field of 12, including several older stakes winners and a Sovereign Award winner.

The Turf Dash headlines a pair of five-furlong turf-sprint stakes on the card, along with the $100,000 Lightning City Stakes for fillies and mares.

Go Cristian Go, a 3-year-old Adios Charlie gelding named for owner Maria Quinteros’s 4-year-old son, is 5-2-3-0 at the Turf Dash’s distance. Ronnie Allen Jr. picked up the mount last time for trainer Luis Dominguez, and the horse proceeded to torch the turf through fractions of 21.05 seconds and 43.91 before kicking clear to victory in 55.97.

“He relaxed for me a little bit around the turn, and when we got to the top of the stretch, I hit him a couple of times and he rebroke on me,” Allen told track publicity. “I said to myself, ‘They ain’t going to catch me.’ Some horses really love this turf course, and apparently he does. Yeah, I was surprised, but I think everybody was a little surprised.”

Allen will need to work out a trip using Go Cristian Go’s speed since the gelding drew post 8.

Conquest Enforcer was Canada’s champion grass horse of 2016, when he won four stakes, including the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile at Santa Anita. That victory came after he was bought for $785,000 out of the Conquest Stables dispersal at the 2016 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. He subsequently has spent time with three different trainers. He has been transferred back to original trainer Mark Casse after losing all four of his starts this year, with three unplaced efforts.

Pay Any Price is in career form, going 5 for 7 this year, all for Ralph Ziadie, with wins in the Silks Run Stakes, Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint, and, most recently, the Claiming Crown Canterbury Stakes. His Beyer Speed Figure of 100 is the top last-out figure in the field. He is the only member of the field to break the triple-digit barrier this year, with his best number a 107 in his Silks Run victory over Power Alert and Mongolian Saturday.

Extravagant Kid owns a pair of stakes wins this year. Dubini was second to Rainbow Heir, beaten less than a length, in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship last out.

◗ In the Lightning City, the well-bred Smiling Causeway aims for her first stakes victory. The filly has never been worse than second in six career starts and has been the runner-up to two multiple-stakes-winning fillies in her stakes tries, losing to Morticia in the Stormy Blues at Laurel Park and getting beaten less than a length by Rubilinda in the Christiecat at Belmont Park.

Smiling Causeway is coming off a head allowance win in October on the Keeneland turf for trainer Arnaud Delacour. She posted a 90 Beyer, the top last-out figure in this field. Smiling Causeway, by Giant’s Causeway, is a half-sister to champion She’s a Tiger and to multiple Grade 1 winner Smiling Tiger.

Everything Lovely, who won The Very One Stakes at Pimlico this year, is 2 for 3 at Tampa, including a win in the local prep for the Lightning City. She was third in this race last year.