Navarro returns to Florida with strong stable

MIAMI – Anybody wondering whether trainer Jorge Navarro would be returning to south Florida at full strength for the upcoming Championship meeting at Gulfstream Park had only to look at the entries for the final two cards of the Gulfstream Park West session this weekend.

Navarro, the leading trainer this past summer at Monmouth Park for a fifth consecutive year, entered horses in six races here Saturday and six more on Sunday’s program, including Ima Wildcat in the $37,000 entry-level optional claimer that serves as the feature event on closing day. Unfortunately, Navarro said he’d likely have to scratch Ima Wildcat, who’d be the solid favorite if he runs, from the five-furlong turf dash for Florida-breds.

“He came down with a temperature this morning,” Navarro said after training Friday. “So it looks like we’ll have to scratch him and point him for a race next month at Gulfstream.”

Navarro said he currently has 70 horses stabled at the training center located adjacent to Gulfstream Park West, admitting even he was surprised at how large his barn has grown in advance of the Championship meet that opens eight miles across town Dec. 2.

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“After what I went through this summer, I thought I’d be looking at having maybe 30 horses here right now,” said Navarro, referring to the controversial video that surfaced on the internet in August that ultimately led to him being fined $10,000 by the New Jersey Racing Commission for his involvement in the incident. “To be honest, for a while there, I thought I was done, that I’d have to retire at 42 years of age. But after talking it over with my wife, I decided to stick with it, and at the moment it looks like I’ve made the right decision. I’m the first to admit I made a mistake. Thankfully, my owners have stuck by me through all of this. We’re up to 70 horses and haven’t even really started claiming yet.”

Navarro’s stable is a mix of quantity and quality and includes two horses who participated in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup – Dirt Mile runner-up Sharp Azteca and War Story, who finished in a dead heat with Arrogate for fifth in the Classic. Navarro said X Y Jet, runner-up in the 2016 Dubai Golden Shaheen, also is back in training and doing “better than ever.” All three were penciled in to breeze at Gulfstream Park West on Saturday morning, with jockey Javier Castellano scheduled to fly down to put Sharp Azteca through his paces in his final prep for his role as the likely favorite in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile.

Showing his strength in the claiming ranks, Navarro has at least 10 horses to enter in seven of the Claiming Crown races on next Saturday’s opening-day program at Gulfstream Park, including Chunnel, winner of his last three starts, and Flowers for Lisa in the afternoon’s main event, the $200,000 Jewel.

“I’m really focused, trying to put what happened this summer behind me and move on,” Navarro said. “I’m really into my horses right now and looking forward to having another big meet this winter at Gulfstream.”

In the meantime, the news that Ima Wildcat is not likely to participate in Sunday’s main event at Gulfstream Park West should put a smile on the faces of the connections of the other 10 horses entered in the race, with Difference Maker and Cantaclaro perhaps the ones to beat in his absence.

Difference Maker, a homebred son of Wildcat Heir owned by GoldMark Farm, has started only four times entering the final month of his 5-year-old season and not since winning his maiden by three lengths over the Gulfstream Park turf course Jan. 20. Difference Maker, who earned a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure on graduation day, has worked three times for trainer Ralph Nicks over the main track at Gulfstream after arriving locally from GoldMark late last month.

Cantaclaro has maintained his sharp form despite keeping a busy schedule since winning his maiden over the Gulfstream Park turf course in September. Claimed by trainer Cayetano Cadahia for a bargain $8,000 on Oct. 4, Cantaclaro has won four of his last five starts over the past nine weeks, with his lone setback by a neck under a $12,500 price tag here Oct. 15.