Here comes Chrome Ghost for Mr. Jordan

If the field for Saturday’s $60,000 Mr. Jordan Handicap at Gulfstream Park looks a bit familiar, it should. The race brings back six of the nine starters from a similarly conditioned overnight handicap decided here four weeks earlier, including the top four finishers, led by upset winner Chrome Ghost.

Competing at a mile for just the second time in his career, Chrome Ghost rallied from just off the early leaders to a half-length victory over Pure Class as an 11-1 outsider in his most recent start. The win was the second in seven tries on the season for Chrome Ghost and first since capturing a seven-furlong overnight handicap at Tampa Bay Downs five months earlier.

Trained by Gerald Bennett, Chrome Ghost carried 120 pounds to his latest victory. He will pick up an additional three pounds when returning in the Mr. Jordan while sharing high weight of 123 pounds with Pure Class on Saturday.

Pure Class rallied belatedly, making up nearly all of a five-length deficit turning for home before falling a half-length short of catching Chrome Ghost in the pair’s previous encounter. Like that rival, Pure Class was making a rare start at a mile, trying the distance for just the third time in his 29-race career.

“I thought he ran a huge race last time. He was just left with too much to do down the stretch,” said David Fawkes, who trains Pure Class for the partnership of Robert Mooney and Jeffrey Siskin. “He kind of flattened out a little bit on the final turn, allowed that one to open a big lead, then came on again at the end.”

Fawkes re-claimed Pure Class for $35,000 during the spring after having lost the horse for nearly twice that claiming price out of his 2025 finale in December.

“He’s been a lot of fun to train and seems to be getting better since we took him back,” Fawkes said. “He hasn’t run a bad race in six starts, won two of those, and has been knocking on the door in all his other races since coming back to our barn. Although most of his wins have come at seven furlongs, I like the mile for him and I love his post” – 10 in a 10-horse field – “on Saturday. He can just sit there on the outside and watch what happens.”

Both El Principito and Awesome Train rallied from far back when finishing third and fourth, respectively, while less than a length apart behind Chrome Ghost last month. Both will be looking for another lively pace in the rematch.

The new faces in the Mr. Jordan include Indecisiveness and Vibe.

Indecisiveness will switch to the main track off a steady diet of turf and Tapeta races over the past season and figures to be part of the early pace while having registered one victory in five prior tries on dirt.

Vibe is a big question mark in his current form for trainer Todd Pletcher. He ran off three consecutive victories, including an optional-claiming and allowance race at Gulfstream going a mile last spring, before finishing off the board in three subsequent starts. He was most recently a distant and disappointing seventh in the Stable Recovery Stakes at Parx Racing.