Intriguing matchup animates Canadian Turf

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three of the nine graded stakes on a blockbuster Saturday card at Gulfstream Park are for older horses. Two of those will be run consecutively during the opening half of the 14-race card, while the last one will bring an end to what surely will be an eventful day.

The Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf helps kick the stakes action into gear as race 5 and will be directly followed by the Grade 3, $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint as race 6. Some four hours later, the Grade 2, $200,000 Mac Diarmida will be run amid fading daylight as race 14.

Canadian Turf (race 5, 1:30)

A couple of last-out stakes winners over the Gulfstream turf, Hembree and Breaking the Rules, bring disparate backgrounds to this one-mile turf race while drawn alongside each other in outer posts as likely favorites in a field of seven.

Hembree, a former claimer, has rapidly ascended the class ladder within the last year to become a player in the North American turf-miler ranks. Trained by Mike Maker, the 5-year-old horse staged a furious rally in winning the Feb. 9 El Prado in his latest, marking his second stakes victory since being claimed last April for $50,000 by the Three Diamonds Farm of Kirk Wycoff.

Jose Ortiz assumes the mount on Hembree from his brother Irad, who opts to stick with the Phipps Stable blueblood Breaking the Rules. Trained by Shug McGaughey, Breaking the Rules dominated the Dec. 29 Tropical Park Derby as an odds-on favorite, running his career record to 4 for 8, and now makes his first start in a stakes versus older horses.

Four of the remaining five entrants all return from the El Prado: Cowboy Culture (third), Krampus (fourth), Siem Riep (ninth), and Holiday Stone (10th).

Gulfstream Park Sprint (race 6, 2:00)

Trainer Stan Hough and the Sagamore Farm folks won’t have to stall-walk the entire day in waiting to run Global Campaign in the Fountain of Youth – they’ll have a welcome distraction when represented by Recruiting Ready as the likely favorite in a field of eight in the Gulfstream Park Sprint.

Given his exceptional turn of foot, and having earned Beyer Speed Figures of 99 or higher in three of his last four starts, Recruiting Ready figures to have a major edge in this six-furlong race if he can get away cleanly from post 1 under Luis Saez. The 5-year-old horse has rounded back to form after slumping early in 2018.

The wild card of the lineup is the second choice Quijote, who earned a career-high 103 Beyer when posting a 23-1 upset with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard in the Sunshine Millions Sprint in his last start. The Florida-bred gelding took full advantage of ridiculous early fractions contested by the odds-on favorite X Y Jet, so it remains to be seen whether that result was an aberration. Ortiz has the return mount.

The balance of the field presents no comparison to the more famous winners of the Gulfstream Sprint, including Dancing Spree (1990), Cherokee Run (1995), and Commentator (2008).

Mac Diarmida (race 14, 6:06)

If the Channel Maker who reeled off four straight triple-digit Beyers in 2018 returns to peak form, his 10 opponents in this 1 3/8-mile turf race could be in real trouble. The 5-year-old gelding will break from the outside post with Joel Rosario aboard.

The issue at hand is whether Channel Maker can improve over how he ran in his last two races, the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Cup Turf (11th) and the 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf Cup (fifth).

“We’re going to a little bit longer distance now,” said Bill Mott, who trains Channel Maker for a four-way partnership. “Hopefully that‘ll suit him and he’ll be placed up into the race a little bit earlier.”

Zulu Alpha, winner of the Grade 3 W. L. McKnight on the Pegasus undercard for Maker and owner Michael Hui, looks like the chief threat to Channel Maker. The 6-year-old gelding will have Irad Ortiz Jr. riding from post 6.