Gulfstream Park: Brown sends favorites in Pulpit and Wait a While

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown will not hit town until early next week. But by the time he does arrive in south Florida, Brown could find his name atop the Gulfstream Park trainer standings as he has leading contenders in three consecutive turf races on Saturday’s opening-day program, including the $100,000 Pulpit and $100,000 Wait a While stakes.

Brown will run recent stakes winner Storming Inti in the one-mile Pulpit as well as both Ready to Act and Hillhouse High in its filly counterpart, the one-mile Wait a While. The two juvenile turf stakes are sandwiched around a second-level optional-claiming race for older horses in which the Brown-trained stakes-placed Calm Pacific figures to be the heavy favorite.

Storming Inti continues to improve with every start and is coming off a game three-quarter-length decision over Tuscan Getaway in Belmont Park’s Awad Stakes on Oct. 27. The runner-up returned to flatter the effort when he captured an allowance race at Woodbine in his next start.

Storming Inti, a son of Stormy Atlantic, earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure in the Awad, the highest posted by any member of the Pulpit lineup.

“He’s a horse who has continued to improve with every start while giving us every indication he’s going to do more of the same,” Brown said of Storming Inti.

Storming Inti should receive his sternest tests in the Pulpit from Bon Accord, fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in his last start, and the speedy Yes I’m Lucky, already a three-time stakes winner, who’ll stretch out behind six furlongs for the first time on Saturday.

Bon Accord outran his 23-1 odds in the Juvenile Turf, finishing fourth in a field of 13 despite being hung out wide around both turns. He won Calder’s five-furlong Catcharisingstar Stakes in his only other start on grass.

Yes I’m Lucky has not started since drawing off to a 6 1/4-length victory in the 5 1/2-furlong Laurel Futurity on Sept. 21, adding the win to earlier triumphs in Monmouth Park’s Tyro and Calder’s Frank Gomez Memorial.

Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. is confident Yes I’m Lucky will handle the added ground, with jockeys Chris DeCarlo, who rode Yes I’m Lucky in the Laurel Futurity, and Paco Lopez, who has ridden the colt three times, backing him up.

“The last time he ran, my first question to the jockey was will he go further, and he said, ‘Absolutely,’” Plesa said, referring to DeCarlo. “And Paco, who rode him in his earlier races, is of the same opinion. He runs on the dirt; he runs on the turf. Everything we’ve thrown at him he’s faced and done what he’s supposed to do. I think he’ll go long.”

Ready to Act training well for Wait a While

Ready to Act returns from her sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf to take on 10 rivals, including her stablemate Hillhouse High, in the Wait a While.

Ready to Act was beaten 4 1/2 lengths by Chriselliam in the Breeders’ Cup after pressing the pace to midstretch. She lost her rider when she ducked in suddenly while clear on the lead leaving the eighth pole of the Grade 2 Natalma at Woodbine in her previous start.

“We took a shot with her in the Breeders’ Cup, feeling class-wise she belonged with that field,” Brown said. “She might have been a little short considering the fact she never got to finish her race at Woodbine, although I thought she ran creditable and didn’t see any reason to stop on her at this time of year. She’s been training very well since the Breeders’ Cup, particularly since she’s come to Florida.”

Hillhouse High won a maiden race in the third start of her career last month at Belmont Park, leading throughout to post a 3 1/4-length victory while receiving a career best 78 Beyer Figure.

“We believed all summer she had the ability to find herself in a stakes, it’s just taken a little longer to get her there than we thought,” Brown said. “But she definitely deserves a shot in this race. All three of these 2-year-olds I entered for the stakes on Saturday seem to have some talent, are on the improve, and appear well spotted. These are nice, logical next steps for all of them.”

Todd Pletcher, who trained Wait a While during her career, will counter the Brown duo with Candy Kitty. A daughter of Lemon Drop Kid owned by Starlight Racing, Candy Kitty is coming off a wide-running fourth-place finish in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Jessamine.