Harry's Ontheloose in peak form for Tapeta sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Harry’s Ontheloose will put his two-race winning streak on the line and try to transfer his good turf form to the Tapeta surface in a $60,000 overnight handicap on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The 5 1/2-furlong race has a strong field of seven 3-year-olds and up.

Harry’s Ontheloose has returned big dividends for his owner John Guarnere’s Imaginary Stables and trainer Elizabeth Dobles since they claimed him for $35,000 out of a win on the turf here in April. The 5-year-old son of Uncaptured comes off wins in five-furlong turf races on Aug. 7 and Sept. 19 that produced matching 89 Beyer Speed Figures. The first of those wins came in an overnight handicap, and the second in a starter allowance. Leonel Reyes rode him in both wins and has the mount on Saturday.

“John actually picked this horse out,” said Dobles. “He likes to look for horses that have lots of back class, and he had some really good numbers, which was a lot of the reasoning behind this claim.”

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Dobles said she really hasn’t done anything special with Harry’s Ontheloose since getting him under her shed.

“He’s really an easy horse to train,” said Dobles. “I breeze him an easy three-eighths once in a while, but he is kind of lazy on the dirt. Obviously switching to the Tapeta is a question, but I’ve started a couple on it who’ve run well on turf and they’ve all really seemed to have done well over that surface.

“He’s gotten perfect trips to win his last two races, Leonel obviously gets along with him nicely, and hopefully he’ll be able to work out another good trip for him on Saturday.”

Harry’s Ontheloose is one of four horses in the field to have posted six-figure earnings this year, along with Wind of Change, Fulmini, and Yes I Am Free.

Wind of Change could be both the speed and class of the field. He won the Mr. Prospector over a sloppy track in May at Monmouth Park and finished fourth in the local version of the Mr. Prospector – a Grade 3 – after leading to midstretch last December. Like Harry’s Ontheloose, Wind of Change has never run on a synthetic surface.

“I really don’t know what to expect from him on the Tapeta, although it looks like if he’s as effective over it as he is on dirt or slop, it’s his race to lose,” said Saffie Joseph Jr., who began training Wind of Change during the spring.

Fulmini is one of three 3-year-olds in the field along with King of Dreams and Trinni Summer. He turns back in distance off a series of longer races. In February, he rallied to defeat high-priced starter-allowance company going five furlongs over the turf.

Yes I Am Free registered a game neck decision under similar overnight handicap conditions in a race switched from the turf to a sloppy main track five weeks earlier. The victory was his third in eight starts on the season. Trained by Laura Cazares, Yes I Am Free was claimed for $62,500 out of a win on the turf in mid-April.