Old warriors face off in optional claimer

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Between them, the 8-year-old Cautious Giant and 9-year-old Scam have started 99 times, won 20 races, finished in the money on a whopping 63 occasions and have combined to earn nearly $1 million during their long racing careers.

On Friday, the two hard-knocking veterans will meet for the first time in the richest of three allowance events on an 11-race program at Gulfstream Park carded at 5 1/2 furlongs under allowance and optional claiming conditions.

Cautious Giant, a stakes winner here last fall, will likely be favored to add to his $616,640 in career earnings in the $48,000 main event exiting a game three-quarter length decision against lesser company here on April 14. The outing was the first for Cautious Giant since rejoining trainer Victor Barboza Jr.’s barn after a brief stint this winter in Maryland with trainer Kieron Magee, during which he finished fourth in a pair of stakes.

Scam, on the other hand, was kicking around the $6,260 claiming level in late March when claimed twice out of back-to-back victories, the most recent time by trainer David Rakoff on behalf of Breakin Wind Farm. Third against starter allowance company for his new connections on May 10, Scam, like Cautious Giant, will race under a $40,000 price tag on Friday while wheeling back on just one week’s rest.

Among those taking on the old pros Cautious Giant and Scam will be Fully Loaded, who makes his 3-year-old debut and first start since finishing a tiring fifth in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes on Sept. 29. The speedy Fully Loaded, who showed much promise early in his 2-year-old season, was transferred to trainer Ralph Nicks since his juvenile campaign and has been training steadily for his return at Palm Meadows with a series of recent works that includes a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.60 on May 3.

The first two allowance events on the card figure to be dominated by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. who has two of the five starters in the third race at 1 1/16 miles on the main track, and the likely favorite, Vincero, in the one-mile fifth event.

Guy Caballero and So Long Chuck give Joseph a potent one-two punch in the third, the former nicely spotted just two starts removed from his third-place finish behind Prince Lucky in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile on March 30. So Long Chuck was also stakes placed earlier this winter but comes into this off a disappointing effort in a well-graded optional-claiming and allowance dash six weeks ago.

Vincero has the dubious distinction of having been a beaten favorite in his last five starts. He will be the odds on choice once again facing just five foes on Friday Vincero, a winner of five of 15 career outings, finished second, beaten a nose, when shocked by the 36-1 Winking At Thedude under similar conditions on April 26.

Rendon making presence felt

Jairo Rendon, who’ll ride The Gipper for trainer Scott Becker in the feature event, is among the newest and most successful members of the jockey colony riding regularly here this summer. Rendon began the week fifth in the standings with 16 victories including a popular tally aboard Royal Squeeze for trainer Elizabeth Dobles in Saturday’s $100,000 Big Drama Stakes.

Rendon was a regular at Monmouth Park last summer where he rode 33 winners. He took the winter off before returning here on a regular basis late this spring.

“I did well at Monmouth last year, finished fourth in the standings, but I didn’t want to come here in the winter where it is very tough and nobody really knew me,” explained Rendon, a native of Colombia. “So I went home, spent five months with my family, then came back to get fit before returning to Monmouth. But I started doing so well here when I first came back, I decided to stay in Florida. We’ve picked up some new customers lately, I won the stakes the other day, and so far everything is working out well.”

Rendon, who has Corey Moran as his agent, said if his business continues to do well he will forgo the trip home to see the family and ride here right through the Championship meet next winter.