Lord Miles may get pace to set up his late run in handicap

A handful of stakes performers, chief among them a nationally familiar name in Grade 2 winner Lord Miles, headline a $75,000 handicap that serves as the feature on Saturday’s 11-race card at Gulfstream Park. First post is 12:55 p.m.

Lord Miles was the upset winner of the Grade 2 Wood Memorial in April 2023. He subsequently gained additional notoriety when trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was forced to scratch the Kentucky Derby entrant, along with his other runners that week, after the unexplained sudden deaths of two of his horses at Churchill Downs. An investigation by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission found no wrongdoing on Joseph’s part.

Meanwhile, Lord Miles came back to run three times in the summer of 2023, his best effort being a runner-up finish to Damon’s Mound in the seven-furlong Robert Hilton Memorial at Charles Town. This year, Lord Miles has started twice at Gulfstream, finishing seventh in an allowance/optional-claiming race in April before running fourth, beaten 6 1/4 lengths, on June 22 in a handicap similar to Saturday’s event, going a one-turn mile.

Lord Miles looks to get back into a racing pattern here and is coming off a bullet five-furlong work last Sunday in 1:00.

The three horses who finished ahead of Lord Miles in that June 22 handicap are all back here, led by the victorious Positive Review, also trained by Joseph. Stakes winner Shaq Diesel was second for David Fawkes, and Black Belt was third for Peter Walder.

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Black Belt led early in that handicap before being overhauled by the top two, who had tracked in second and third. Black Belt could get pressure here from stakes-placed highweight Big and Classy – who is coming off a layoff – and stakes winner Legacy Isle, if they run to prior efforts. A hot pace would be good news for the late-running Lord Miles.

Saturday’s Gulfstream card also includes a pair of allowance races. The sixth race, a $48,000, seven-furlong tilt for Florida-bred fillies and mares, is the first start against winners for Personal Choice, who ran a Beyer Speed Figure of 78 – the top number in the field this year – in an 8 1/4-length debut victory at this distance for Ruben Sierra. She has returned to the work tab with two quick moves since.

A $61,000 allowance turf sprint also includes a promising lightly raced runner against more experienced foes. Boomcchero, by the good turf sprinter and turf-sprint sire Bucchero, has won his first two starts on Gulfstream’s synthetic track for Ronald Coy, with Beyers of 84 and 81.

D. J. Stable and trainer Mark Casse have a pair of juveniles who should relish the 7 1/2-furlong distance on turf in a $65,000 maiden special weight. Como is by classic sire Constitution, who is quietly developing into one of the nation’s leading turf sires, and is out of graded stakes winner Mo’ Green. Aristotle, fifth on debut at five furlongs, is by stamina influence Tapit and from a family that has produced Grade/Group 1 winners routing on both dirt and turf.

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