Milliken continues trying to fulfill potential in allowance
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Milliken was in line to be the next star for Ian Wilkes and his longtime clients the Whitham family of western Kansas. As a 3-year-old colt, Milliken debuted with an 88 Beyer Speed Figure in winning an Ellis Park maiden race on Aug. 29, 2021.
“The talent is there,” Wilkes said this week from his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center. “He’s a very, very talented horse.”
After finishing second by just a half-length with a 96 Beyer in his second start in an October 2021 allowance at Keeneland to Olympiad – who would develop into a multiple graded winner of more than $3 million and was second to Flightline in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last fall – hopes remained high. It was only a matter of time until Milliken went through his allowance conditions on his way to becoming an elite performer.
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Somehow, some way, none of it happened. Improbably, Milliken was an odds-on favorite in his next four starts – and lost them all. Wilkes then called time-out and had the horse gelded following a May 4 defeat at Churchill Downs.
“Last year was a frustrating year with him,” said Wilkes. “He got a splint [injury] and it took a long time to get it right. But we were able to get the one race in him in the fall,” when Milliken was fourth in a Nov. 25 allowance at Churchill, “and I’ve been able to keep him going down here.”
Milliken, with Julien Leparoux riding from post 2, might have finally found the right spot Friday at Gulfstream Park when he faces 10 other older horses in the featured seventh race. It’s an $86,000 first-level allowance going a one-turn mile on the main track. The purse includes $14,000 in Florida-bred incentives for which only The Skipper Too is eligible.
In more than a decade together, Wilkes and the Whithams have enjoyed their share of racing glory. They won the 2012 BC Classic at Santa Anita with Fort Larned, and they also had graded success with standouts such as McCraken, Four Graces, and Walkathon. It might be getting a little late in the game for Milliken, now 5, to join that roster, but Wilkes will give it a try.
“I’d actually like to stretch him out after this, send him two turns and see what he can do,” he said.
If Milliken can’t follow through Friday, the fellow Kentucky shipper Strong Quality (post 3, Irad Ortiz Jr.) could fill the void. Trained by Mark Casse, the 4-year-old colt has been thwarted in several photo finishes since winning a maiden race last February, finishing second in four of five starts, all but one with Beyers in the 90s.
First post Friday is 12:10 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 3:07. Sunshine and a high of 80 are in the local forecast, meaning all four turf events (races 1, 4, 6, 8) more than likely will go as scheduled.
◗ With the Sunshine Classic having been scrapped due to insufficient entries, the lone remaining feature for Saturday at Gulfstream is the $75,000 Sunshine Turf. A modest field of seven older Florida-breds will go 1 1/16 miles on the turf in the sixth of 11 races.
The Sunshine Sprint and Sunshine Filly-Mare Turf were run here last Saturday. This is the 20th year for the Sunshine races.
◗ An updated roster of likely starters for the Jan. 28 Pegasus World Cup was due to be released by Gulfstream officials late Wednesday, with few, if any, major changes expected. Entries for the entire Pegasus card will be drawn Sunday.
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