Gulfstream Park: Speak Logistics faces pair of up-and-comers Sunday

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park’s main winter meet does not open for three weeks, but you wouldn’t know it from the looks of the lineup for Sunday’s feature race, a $34,500 optional-claiming test at a mile that lured the Grade 2-placed Speak Logistics along with a pair of good-looking, late-developing 3-year-old prospects, Speechify and Defense Article.

Speak Logistics has not started since finishing seventh behind Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Will Take Charge in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. That outing came on the heels of Speak Logistics’s best effort of the season, a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Smarty Jones there 19 days earlier. Speak Logistics, winner of Calder’s In Reality Stakes last year at 2, has started once locally, finishing third in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth while on the Derby trail last winter.

“He had the typical excuses in the Pennsylvania Derby,” said Eddie Plesa Jr., who trains Speak Logistics for the Hardway Stables. “I think he bounced off his best race less than three weeks earlier in the Smarty Jones. But we had the opportunity to run in a graded stakes race with a big purse and we took it. Unfortunately, it just proved a little too quick back for him.”

Plesa said Speak Logistics has bounced out of the Pennsylvania Derby nicely and he is looking forward to getting him back in action Sunday.

“He had a little issue with a knee this summer, but we took care of it surgically and he’s come back 100 percent, better than ever,” Plesa said. “The Smarty Jones was probably his best effort yet.”

Plesa had considered running Speak Logistics in this Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Classic Preview and said he may bring him back in the Jan. 18 Sunshine Millions Classic “if he proves he warrants it.”

Speechify, 3, is undefeated in two starts, having won his maiden by 10 1/2 lengths on Aug. 22 and an entry-level allowance dash by 2 3/4 lengths five weeks later. Both those races were at six furlongs, while Sunday’s main event will be decided at a mile.

“He’s obviously going to have to run faster to beat older horses, and there are some tough horses in this race,” trainer Ralph Nicks said. “He’s still got to earn his way to whatever he’s going to be, but he’s off to a good start, and I personally believe he’ll like the added distance. He’s training very well and has a great post, but he can still be a good horse and not win on Sunday.”

Defense Article has won 2 of his 3 starts, with his lone loss coming locally in a seven-furlong optional claimer on Sept. 2. He bounced back from that setback to beat similar competition by 7 1/2 lengths while earning a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure three weeks later at Calder.

The remainder of the field comprises stakes winner Flatter This, Mystic Strike, Jay Eye See, Jamie’s Boy, and Uptown Anthem.