Navarro can pad stats in allowances
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jorge Navarro knew coming into the 2018-19 championship meet that he faced a Herculean task trying to unseat perennial Gulfstream Park leading trainer Todd Pletcher after a 15-year reign. But one month into the session it’s been so far so good for Navarro, who held a 19-15 advantage over King Todd entering Wednesday’s card.
“I couldn’t be happier with the start we’ve had to the meet,” Navarro said. “Obviously, Todd is going to be hard to beat, but I do feel I’ve got a chance. I think I have the horses, but the right races are going to have to come to us and things have to go well.”
Navarro will attempt to add to his current lead when sending out top contenders in two of the three allowance races on Wednesday’s program, The trainer has Chunnel in the seventh event and Tweeting about an hour later in race 9.
Chunnel is one of eight starters in a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming race to be decided for a $51,000 purse. The 8-year-old veteran is coming off a second-place finish at Tampa Bay Downs under slightly tougher conditions in his 2018 finale, closing out a year during which he won 3 of 9 starts for earnings of more than $114,000. Chunnel is eligible for the race by virtue of the fact he’ll compete under a $25,000 claiming tag.
“He’s an 8-year-old who is pretty much out of conditions, so I think $25,000 is the right spot for him now,” Navarro said. “With these type of horses, you can’t start dreaming because you don’t want to lose them and run them over their heads. If you do, they’ll try hard and get themselves in trouble if they are overmatched. We’ve done great with this horse over the three years we’ve had him, he won a couple of Jersey-bred stakes for us, but the secret to this game is no secret at all. There’s no magic formula. You’ve got to run them where you think they can win.”
Chunnel figures to face his sternest opposition from The Scotsman and California invader Face of Victory, who makes his local bow for trainer Bob Hess Jr.
Tweeting drops back into a $52,000 optional claimer going one mile off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Rampart. The Uncle Mo filly was transferred to Navarro’s barn this summer at Monmouth Park, where she won an allowance race by a dozen lengths before shipping to Laurel to finish second in the restricted Shine Again Stakes.
“She got bumped badly out of the gate and went to her knees, losing her best chance in the Rampart,” Navarro said. “But she’s trained great, should be back on her best form coming into this race, and I love the one-turn mile for her. I think she’s in the process of becoming a stakes horse this season.”
Tweeting will have the red-hot Golden Award as her chief rival. The younger sister of 2012 Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another has improved with every start and brings a modest two-race win streak into the race.
She Takes Heart also could prove formidable if she runs back to her best form competing with blinkers off on Wednesday.
