Gulfstream Park Mile could set up for late-running Haikal and Hog Creek Hustle

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Haikal and Hog Creek Hustle were given a chance to make the Kentucky Derby last year, came up short in various ways, and have been recast, much to their benefit, as late-running one-turn horses.

That style should serve them well on Saturday, when the two 4-year-olds are part of a group of 10 older runners who will challenge Pegasus runner-up Mr Freeze in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Mile, a one-turn race whose race shape should aid both.

“There should be plenty of pace,” Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainer of Haikal, said Thursday morning. “He should come running.”

Haikal last year won the Gotham, a one-turn mile, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 95 before finishing third in the Wood Memorial going 1 1/8 miles. He was intended for the Derby, but suffered a minor injury that kept him out of the race. It took longer than expected for him to get back to action, but he returned last month at Aqueduct and just missed in a third-level allowance following a layoff of nearly nine months.

“He’s doing fabulous,” McLaughlin said. “We initially gave him 45 days off, but that turned into 90 days, then it took a while to get a race that suited him. He ran very well at Aqueduct. I was real happy with his race. He’s matured. Does everything right.”

McLaughlin also sends out True Timber, who was third in the Cigar Mile last fall but most recently finished eighth of 10 in the Pegasus World Cup.

:: Get a closer look at the Gulfstream Park card with the DRF Clocker Report

“He’s always been a funny horse. We’re putting blinkers on him and we’ll see how that goes,” McLaughlin said.

Hog Creek Hustle also was on the Derby trail in early 2019, but by Derby Day trainer Vickie Foley already had made up her mind that he was best as a one-run one-turn horse, so he competed that afternoon in the Pat Day Mile, finishing second. He subsequently won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens on Belmont Day, and was beaten a nose in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens at Saratoga. He most recently was second in the Kenner at Fair Grounds, a race in which he was used early in a three-horse field. He got a 94 Beyer.

“He didn’t get a fair shot in New Orleans,” Foley said. “We had to take him out of his race to have a chance.”

Foley said she thinks seven furlongs – the distance of the Stephens and Jerkens – “is his perfect distance,” but thinks Hog Creek Hustle can be effective going a mile, as long as it’s around one turn, like it is here.

“We feel like he’s a come-from-behind sprinter,” Foley said. “He’s proven that time and time again.”

The race favorite should be Mr Freeze, second to Mucho Gusto in the Pegasus five weeks ago after setting the early pace and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 100. The last time he ran in a one-turn mile, he captured the Grade 3 Ack Ack at Churchill Downs.

“He’s as good now as he’s ever been,” said his trainer, Dale Romans, who said this race could be used as a prep for next month’s Godolphin Mile.

Romans, like McLaughlin, is doubling up. He also sends out Rare Form, third last time out in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper, a similar one-turn mile at Gulfstream.

Phat Man and Zenden, one-two in the Hooper, give this race plenty of depth. Phat Man benefited from a sharp pace and rallied to earn a career-best Beyer of 101. Zenden was part of that strong pace and only yielded late, losing by just one length while also earning a career top, in his case a 100.

Significant pace should be provided by Bodexpress, who has to flee the rail. The draw has done him no favors recently, as he was marooned in the outside post in the 10-horse Pegasus World Cup, in which he tired to finish fifth.

Expert returns from a nine-month layoff and makes his first start for Dominick Schettino, who is quietly having a good meet here, with a strike rate north of 25 percent.

Do Share trailed in the three-horse Kenner. He’ll be an outsider here, but he’ll get pace to run into, and merits a long look in the gimmicks being as he’s been in the money in 21 of 31 starts.

Forever Mo moves back to dirt but seems off form.

The Gulfstream Park Mile goes as race 12 on the 14-race card.