Gulfstream Park: Travelin Man stays on turf for Silks Run Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Who says you can’t teach an old horse new tricks?

Travelin Man enjoyed a pretty successful run racing exclusively on dirt at ages 3 through 5. But as a 6-year-old, it appears the multiple stakes winner has embarked on a second career as a turf sprinter in light of his impressive grass debut this winter at Gulfstream Park.

Travelin Man will return to turf Wednesday as the likely favorite in the $75,000 Silks Run Stakes at five furlongs. The overnight event will bring together a strong field that includes the first three finishers – Wicked Tune, Travelin Man, and Determinato – from the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Feb. 1, along with Grade 2-placed turf-sprint specialist Fiddlers Patriot, who will make his first start since July 2012.

Unraced at 2, Travelin Man won five of 17 outings over the next three seasons, including the Grade 2 Swale Stakes in just his third career start here in April 2011. Although not quite able to live up to his early promise, the homebred son of Trippi did register two more stakes victories on dirt before trainer Todd Pletcher tried turf with him this month in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint.

Despite being squeezed and knocked back badly at the start, Travelin Man showed an affinity for the new surface when finishing full of run from the rear of the pack to fall three-quarters of a length shy of catching race winner Wicked Tune. The performance impressed Pletcher enough to wheel him right back on grass again Wednesday.

“I thought he ran really well the first time on the grass, and hopefully he’ll get a little cleaner break this time,” Pletcher said. “Sometimes he doesn’t jump out [of the gate] that well, but this last time, I don’t think it was his fault. The horse right next to him broke through the gate, then he charged the gate, and it kind of went wrong from there. Off that performance, I’m kind of confident coming back in the same type of spot, but in five-eighths turf races, you need a good trip.”

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

Wicked Tune steadied after the break before recovering to finish third in a five-furlong turf allowance here two starts back before tripping out nicely to win the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint for trainer Jane Cibelli and owner-breeder Patricia Generazio. The victory was the third in four tries over the local course for Wicked Tune and the second stakes win of his career.

Determinato finished a game third in the Turf Sprint despite contesting the pace from gate to wire while making just his second start following a brief freshening. He, too, relishes the local course, having won three of his five starts over the Gulfstream turf strip.

Fiddlers Patriot has not started since winning an overnight turf stakes at Saratoga in July 2012. Trained by George Weaver, Fiddlers Patriot came within 0.04 seconds that day of matching the 5 1/2-furlong course record he’d set two years earlier. Now 8, Fiddlers Patriot has made only 15 starts, having been plagued by foot issues throughout his career.

The remainder of a very competitive Silks Run field is Speechify, Varsity, Bold Thunder, Weekend Hideaway, The Brothers War, and Partyallnightlong.