Gulfstream Park: Tango On preps for Parx stakes in Thursday feature

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The winter of 2014 has been a nightmare for trainer Steve Klesaris, who has virtually been put out of business for the past five months after portions of the Parx Racing barn area were quarantined not once but twice since November due to equine herpesvirus (EHV-1).

One horse lucky to escape the quarantine was Tango On, a lightly raced but promising gelding whom Klesaris stopped on and shipped to Florida shortly before the first quarantine was imposed last fall. As a result, Tango On will be able to launch his 2014 campaign as one of the top choices in Thursday’s $51,750 optional-claiming feature at Gulfstream Park, scheduled for five furlongs on grass.

Tango On, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Stonesider, finished second while debuting for Klesaris in June before coming back to win his next two starts, with all three races coming over the main track at Parx. He began preparations for his 4-year-old season in Ocala, Fla., before being sent to trainer John Servis at Palm Meadows in January.

“He’s been training well since I got him here, and I blew him down the lane once on the grass, and he seemed to handle it well,” Servis said. “There’s a Pennsylvania-bred stakes at Parx on [April 12] I’m pointing him for, so the timing of this race on Thursday is perfect. He’s got a little breeding for the grass, so we figured we’d take a chance and start him back here.”

Mish Mosh, haltered by trainer Sid Attard for $62,500 out of a similarly conditioned optional-claiming dash here last month, likely will be favored to win his first race in three tries this year. Mish Mosh, a perfect 4 for 4 in 2013, forced the pace before finishing second behind Starship Wildcat as the even-money favorite in his last start.

Stormy Rush, fifth after setting the early pace in Tampa Bay Downs’s Turf Dash three weeks ago, returns to Gulfstream for the second time this winter, having finished second, 2 3/4 lengths in front of Mish Mosh, in his local debut Jan. 2. Stormy Rush missed 13 months following his fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Nearctic at Woodbine in October 2012.

Klesaris, a south Florida regular in the winter for more than a decade, has six horses stabled at Gulfstream, all of whom he claimed during the meeting.

“When the first quarantine hit at Parx and we weren’t allowed to ship anything to Gulfstream, they took the stalls I’d been allotted away,” Klesaris said. “I had to scramble around to get the stalls I have now for the horses I claimed. I’m going on month No. 5 of not being able to run a single horse up here. They wouldn’t even allow us to take the horses out of the stalls to train during the quarantines, so it’s going to take me a couple of months or more, considering the bad weather we’ve had in the Northeast, to get them fit enough to race again. This whole thing has been a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

Servis also was affected by the quarantine, having left 35 horses behind at Parx while bringing just 15 to Palm Meadows for the winter.

“I had to switch gears with a lot of horses because of the quarantine,” Servis said. “I was forced to scratch Villette from the Barbara Fritchie, and I couldn’t get Undertaker, a promising 3-year-old of ours, out of the barn area to run in the Gotham as planned. Now, I won’t be able to run him until the Illinois Derby, which means he’s off the [Kentucky] Derby trail, if he was good enough to be on it to begin with.”

Servis was able to get Joint Return down to Palm Meadows following her easy victory in Aqueduct’s Busher Stakes on Feb. 1. Joint Return, a 3-year-old daughter of Include, has won her last three starts by a combined 12 1/2 lengths.