Nomadic Bucchero invades for Silks Run

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The well-traveled Bucchero will take his show to Gulfstream Park for the first time and face six rivals, including 2017 winner Pay Any Price, in the $75,000 Silks Run on Saturday.

The five-furlong overnight turf stakes shares top billing on the 13-race card with its filly counterpart, the $75,000 Captiva Island, featuring the 2018 debut of Grade 3 winner Morticia.

Bucchero has made his last five starts at five different tracks. The highlight of those starts was a victory in the Grade 2 Woodford last fall at Keeneland and a strong fourth-place finish four weeks later at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. The versatile Bucchero has posted seven of his 10 wins on dirt.

“As well as he ran on grass at the end of last year, the plan is to stick to the turf this season,” said trainer Tim Glyshaw, who is based this winter at the Fair Grounds.

“I was very proud of the way he ran in the Breeders’ Cup. We didn’t want to get eaten up in a speed duel, so the instructions were to sit back off the pace a little. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect he’d get stuck on the rail like he did, and if he had an opening I believe he’d have hit the board.”

Glyshaw’s goal is to get Bucchero back to the Breeders’ Cup, to be run this year over his home course at Churchill Downs.

“I was hoping to get him started at the Fair Grounds, but there was nothing for him here and I wanted to get a good prep race into him before the Shakertown at Keeneland, which is why he’s down [at Gulfstream] on Saturday,” Glyshaw said. “You’re always concerned about running over a new course, but he seems to run on anything, and that strip there couldn’t be any harder than the dirt at Indiana, so I expect he’ll run just fine.”

Pay Any Price is coming off his poorest performance since winning the Silks Run by 3 1/4 lengths in world-record time one year ago: an eighth-place finish in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint after getting involved in a suicidal early speed duel with Successful Native. Pay Any Price, who had won five of his six previous starts, is expected to have an easier time making the lead Saturday, with Bucchero likely to be in a stalking position.

American Sailor, runner-up in the Gulfstream Turf Sprint, Pool Winner, Shoshone Brave, Little Chesney, and Vision Perfect complete the field.

Morticia starts season

Like Bucchero, Morticia spent plenty of time in a van herself the past year, running eight times over six different tracks, including twice at Gulfstream, where she broke her maiden and won the Melody of Colors Stakes last winter. The Captiva Island is her first start since closing out her 3-year-old campaign with a victory in the Grade 3 Buffalo Trace at Keeneland on Oct. 13.

“She only ran eight times last season, but she vanned everywhere, so we decided to just give her a break, especially since all the major turf sprints are in the summer,” trainer Rusty Arnold said. “She’s doing great and I’m excited to get her back. We penciled this race in when we left Kentucky, and so far everything, including the weather, has worked out perfectly. She’s ready to go.”

Arnold said that if all goes well Saturday and in her next scheduled start at Keeneland, he might try “to get a little ambitious” with Morticia and try her against colts later in the season.

Morticia will face nine in the Captiva Island. Her chief competition is likely to come from Blue Bahia, who had her two-race win streak snapped after taking a bad step and stumbling badly at midstretch when seemingly on the way to victory in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint here Jan. 27.

Other key contenders in the Captiva Island include Girls Know Best and Just Talkin, who finished first and second in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint, Jumby Bay, stakes winner Jennifer Lynette, and the late-running Always Thinking.