Maiden Royal Squeeze adds intrigue to In Reality Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Stanley Gold, as expected, will dominate the entries for Saturday’s In Reality Stakes, the finale in the open division of the Florida Sire Stakes. Gold will send out four starters in the race, including Sing Praises and Twotwentyfive A, the winners of the first two legs of the series. But the most intriguing horse in the lineup may be the maiden Royal Squeeze, who has shipped down from New York from the potent barn of trainer Chad Brown.

Royal Squeeze has started twice, finishing fourth on each occasion, with both of his races coming on the turf. A Florida-bred son of Wildcat Heir, Royal Squeeze finished well after breaking slowly in his debut at Saratoga, then showed improved speed before tiring when wheeling back four weeks later at Belmont Park.

“He’s trained okay on the dirt, but he’s a big, tall, scopey horse who doesn’t show much speed in his works, so I didn’t want to sprint him first time out on dirt or turf,” Brown said. “I think he can run over either surface. He just needs distance. His debut wasn’t bad from a tough post, although I was disappointed he lost his second start. I just decided to take a shot and send him down for this race, since it doesn’t appear to be coming up overly tough for the money.”

Royal Squeeze is the first of more than 100 horses Brown eventually will have stabled in this area when he takes up residence again at the Palm Meadows training center for the winter.

“I have a lot of confidence in Palm Meadows, as well as the management at Gulfstream Park,” Brown said. “It seems they have continued to go to great lengths to make sure the surfaces are good and safe at all their tracks. Palm Meadows is where I’ve been going in recent winters, and we’ve had very good luck coming out of there each season, including once again this year.”

Brown said he expects to begin sending the first of his South Florida contingent to Palm Meadows from New York around the middle of this month.