Gulfstream Park handicapping roundup: Week of Feb. 22

News from an extended week of Florida racing

A rare six-day race week (Feb. 12-17) lengthened by the Presidents Day holiday yielded a predictable barrage of ontrack action at Gulfstream Park, some of it even print-worthy . . .

◗ Trainer Mike Maker went on a veritable rampage, winning with 7 of 12 starters for one-week purse earnings of nearly $125,000. Into Friday, Maker was 32 of 96 for the meet, giving him the highest winning percentage of any trainer with at least 10 starts, and trailed only perennial champion Todd Pletcher (46 wins) atop the meet standings. While staying mostly in Florida to manage the stable operating out of one of the two huge new barns on the south side of the track, Maker also has strings at Fair Grounds and Turfway Park and is doing some long-range planning for the Keeneland spring meet (April 4-25), where he broke the all-time record for wins (25) last April.

◗ Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano had another banner week by recording 12 wins and 6 seconds from 28 mounts to lengthen his lead atop the standings (into Friday) to an 85-51 count over his closest pursuer, Paco Lopez.

◗ Inimitable Romanee’s 10-1 upset going 1 3/8 miles in the Grade 3 The Very One on Saturday came following a 28-1 surprise going 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 3 Long Island at Aqueduct in November. Those wins have trainer Graham Motion good-naturedly second-guessing himself on not trying the New York-bred mare at longer distances a long time ago. “I’m not surprised she has come to herself,” Motion said after The Very One. “I should have tried her at 1 1/2 miles three years ago.”

◗ The Gulfstream meet, which once had a beginning and an end until the infamous corporate feud with Calder resulted in a year-round schedule, will lose quite a few of its major players at the end of March, when some jockeys, including Joel Rosario, head to Keeneland.
“I believe our last day here will be March 30,” said Rosario’s agent, Ron Anderson.

Rosario, an Eclipse Award finalist last year, went just 2 for 15 last week, with one of his disappointments being Calistoga, who faded badly in a Friday allowance after rushing to the early lead in her first start in more than nine months as the 2-5 favorite.

◗ Jockey Dylan Davis also had a subpar week at 2 for 32, with one of his losers being Unleash the Talent, a 3-10 favorite in the third race Monday. (Favorites on Monday were particularly bad, going 1 for 10.) Davis, who employs Cliff Collier as his agent, will head north at the end of March. Davis loses his “bug” on April 19 and will be riding at Keeneland and Indiana Downs with Jimmy McNerney as agent.

◗ Athens (stumbled start, steadied early in race 7) and first-timer Midnight Bliss (lunged start, race 2) were among the horses enduring awful trips in defeat Saturday. Conversely, winners enjoying picture-postcard-perfect trips the same day were My Charming Clyde (race 3) and Lucky for You (race 5).

◗ Trainer Dale Romans had an eventful week, winning with a promising 3-year-old first-time starter named Talon’s of Tuscany on Feb. 12 while also claiming back a Friday winner, Who’s Mary’s Daddy, for owner Mike Bruder. Romans and Bruder had lost the filly for the same $30,000 via claim from her previous start.

“I usually don’t like to take a horse back, but Mike really wanted her,” Romans said.

Another Romans trainee, Cozzetti, remained eligible for a second-level condition by finishing second to favored Integrity in the nominal feature Monday and is still winless since the Grade 3 American Derby in July 2012.

◗ Apprentice rider Carson Sullivan won for the fifth time Saturday and therefore had his weight allowance reduced from 10 to seven pounds. Sullivan, 28, hails from a racing background on both sides of his family and works mornings as an exercise rider, mostly for Nick Zito, for whom he rode a winner last week.

◗ As always, the claims office was very busy last week, with 36 successful claims being made during the six-day period. More than $6 million in claims have been made at the meet.

◗ The 20-cent rainbow 6 jackpot crossed the $1 million threshold with the conclusion of the Monday card. A solo winner is required to empty the jackpot.