Joseph shakes off dismal Pegasus, moves on to Holy Bull
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Even with his name sitting atop the Gulfstream Park championship-meet trainer standings, Saffie Joseph Jr. is acutely aware of how humbling the sport of racing can be.
All three Joseph horses finished far behind the victorious Art Collector in the Pegasus World Cup on Saturday. Skippylongstocking was seventh at 9-1, White Abarrio was eighth at 6-1, and O’Connor was 11th at 25-1 in a 12-horse field.
“There’s a lot more disappointment than success in this game,” Joseph said Monday. “When you’re successful, that’s what makes it so rewarding, because it’s so hard. Saturday was a tough day, but you sleep it off, and Sunday we woke up with hope again, looking to move forward.”
Joseph, who began the race week Wednesday with a 16-14 lead over Todd Pletcher in the local standings, will have a couple of starters in the highlight of another big program set for this coming Saturday at Gulfstream. He’ll run Lord Miles and West Coast Cowboy in a field of eight 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3, $250,000 Holy Bull Stakes.
Lord Miles was a late-closing third in the Mucho Macho Man on Jan. 1 in just his second career start. The bay Curlin colt will have leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard from post 1 when adding blinkers.
“Irad worked him in the blinkers [Friday] and was happy with him,” Joseph said. “In the Mucho Macho Man, the horse ran an incomplete race, gave himself too much to do. But we do think he’s on the improve.”
West Coast Cowboy (post 2, Edgard Zayas) “hasn’t run the numbers these other horses have yet, but we want to see how he does with two turns,” Joseph said. “We’ve entered taking a chance to see where we are with him.”
Lord Miles could vie for favoritism in the Holy Bull with Legacy Isle and Cyclone Mischief. Legacy Isle (post 6, Luis Saez) was disqualified from first to second in the Mucho Macho Man, while Cyclone Mischief (post 4, Tyler Gaffalione) earned a field-high 90 Beyer Speed Figure with a 5 3/4-length allowance romp here Jan. 8.
The Grade 3 Holy Bull is a 40-point qualifier (20-8-6-4-2) toward the Kentucky Derby on May 6. It’s the last of 12 races on a Saturday card that includes four other stakes for 3-year-olds, all of them Grade 3s – the Swale (race 6), Kitten’s Joy (race 9), Forward Gal (race 10), and Sweetest Chant (race 11).
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