Miller considering Dubai trip for Texas Wedge, Captain Scotty

ARCADIA, Calif. – Nationwide, trainer Peter Miller won stakes with sprinters on Saturday – the $150,000 World of Trouble Turf Sprint with Texas Wedge at Gulfstream Park and the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes with Captain Scotty at Santa Anita.

They could form part of Miller’s team for seven-figure Group 1 races at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 28.

Miller said on Sunday that Captain Scotty is a candidate for the $2.5 million Golden Shaheen at six furlongs on dirt, while Texas Wedge could run in the $2 million Al Quoz Sprint at six furlongs on a straightaway turf course.

Captain Scotty ($9.80) led throughout the $196,000 Palos Verdes Stakes, holding off a late threat from 9-10 Flagstaff to get his first stakes win by a neck.

Owned by Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel, Captain Scotty, a 6-year-old gelding by Quality Road, has won 4 of 13 starts and earned $321,095. The Palos Verdes was Captain Scotty’s third start after a layoff of eight months from March to late November.

“He’s had his issues, nothing surgical,” Miller said. “He needed time.”

Texas Wedge won his second stakes of the month in the World of Trouble Turf Sprint at five furlongs. A 5-year-old gelding, Texas Wedge won the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf here on Jan. 1.

Texas Wedge has never run in a six-furlong turf sprint, but was a troubled seventh as the 5-2 favorite in the restricted Oceanside Stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar in the summer of 2018.

“I think he would fit,” Miller said of the Al Quoz.

Last year, the Miller-trained runners Belvoir Bay and Stormy Liberal finished second and third in the Al Quoz Sprint to the highly regarded Blue Point.

Flagstaff, who won the Damascus Stakes at seven furlongs here in November, will be considered for the $1.5 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 29, said trainer John Sadler. The Riyadh Dirt Sprint is on the undercard of the $20 million Saudi Cup.

Flagstaff, who was ridden by Victor Espinoza, was a length behind Captain Scotty at the top of the stretch and with a furlong remaining in the Palos Verdes, but could not make up the difference despite making steady progress.