Mayberry Deputy wins maiden to cap eventful week

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The fact Mayberry Deputy rallied to win a very competitive one-mile maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds here last Saturday came as a surprise to many, especially the bettors who sent him postward at odds of 17-1 in his third career start. The fact he won at all was probably even a bigger surprise to those who knew what Mayberry Deputy had gone through in the five days leading up to that start.

Mayberry Deputy, a son of Majesticperfection, was one of 26 horses trained by Ken McPeek literally flooded out of their stalls after more than 12 inches of rain fell over Gulfstream Park last Sunday evening and into Monday morning. The rising waters affected portions of the barn area and created havoc for the horses, trainers, and their help located in the those particular sections of the track.

One of those flooded barns was occupied by McPeek, who recently signed a lease/purchase agreement and had moved the majority of his vast stable into the Summerfield Training Center, formerly known as the Padua Training Center, in Ocala, Fla. McPeek acted swiftly once alerted of the situation developing at Gulfstream early Monday morning.

“I got a phone call about 3 a.m. that we had a problem, that water had started rising throughout the barn,” McPeek recalled. “I got on the phone immediately to Sallee Van Lines and was fortunate they had some trucks in Boynton Beach. The vans came and scooped up the 26 horses we had at the track, including Mayberry Deputy, and they were all up in Ocala by late afternoon, early evening on Monday.”

McPeek kept the more than two dozen unexpected arrivals at Summerfield for three days while never missing a morning of training with those horses in the process. He was even able to breeze Mayberry Deputy over the six-furlong track on Christmas morning in preparation for Saturday’s race.

“I have to commend my staff at Gulfstream, they did a wonderful job cleaning up and refurbishing the barn in what was a tough situation for everybody up there this week,” McPeek said. “As for Mayberry Deputy, he had overcame quite a bit of adversity, under the circumstances, to run the race that he did on Saturday. I think a lot of him. I believe he wants even longer than the mile races he’s been running, and we’ll probably bring him back in the Holy Bull” on Feb. 1.

McPeek says he has approximately 100 horses currently stabled at the farm full time, plus another 16 at Keeneland, along with his group at Gulfstream Park. He said he has hired longtime colleague Dominic Brennan to handle his younger horses and one-time South Florida mainstay, trainer Marty Wolfson, to oversee the older ones.

“I’m real excited to work with both Marty and Dominic, two exceptionally experienced horsemen,” McPeek said. “Aside from Mayberry Deputy, we also have some other very talented 2-year-olds for the same client [Fighting L Thoroughbreds] including Fighting Seabee, who is breezing at Summerfield and probably will be pointed for Tampa, as well as a couple of potential Oaks fillies at the farm, Motu and Swiss Skydiver.”

Fighting Seabee won the Grade 3 With Anticipation this summer at Saratoga and also is stakes-placed on dirt. Motu finished second in the Grade 2 Golden Rod in her 2-year-old finale. Swiss Skydiver has posted a win and a second in her only two starts.

There will be five stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday’s card, but only one, the Kitten's Joy, is graded. The Grade 3 fixture will be decided at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf and surprisingly figures to come up a short field when entries are drawn Wednesday.

The racing office was only able to confirm five potential starters for the Kitten’s Joy on Sunday, a group led by Irish Mias, coming off a second-place finish behind the undefeated Sole Volante in the Pulpit Stakes on Nov. 30. Others expected to run include Island Commish, an easy winner of his final two juvenile outings against starter-allowance competition; Hard to be Humble, runaway winner of his only previous start at Aqueduct; and maiden winners Bless the Kitten and Get Smokin.

Sole Volante is among the 19 nominations to the Kitten’s Joy but is instead expected to switch to the main track to run in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on Saturday.