Patrioticandproud launches season on turf in optional claimer
Patrioticandproud will try to pick up where he left off last fall in Saturday’s 10th race at Gulfstream Park, an optional $62,500 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Patrioticandproud ended 2015 with two strong races in November, winning a one-mile optional claimer on the Churchill Downs turf and finishing second in the Grade 3 Valedictory at 1 3/4 miles on Woodbine’s Polytrack. Other highlights from a 12-race campaign last year included a wire-to-wire win in an optional claimer at Woodbine in June and a second in the Grade 2 San Gabriel at Santa Anita in January.
Patrioticandproud’s victory at Churchill Downs last year came on yielding turf, so a rain-softened turf course Saturday would not bother him.
Patrioticandproud, a 7-year-old trained by Mark Casse, used a strong late move in his final two races last year, and he will need to finish fast again to catch Chamois, who may find himself loose on the lead Saturday.
Trained by Christophe Clement, Chamois raced only four times last year at 5 and has not started since fading to finish fourth and last in the $194,000 PTHA President’s Cup at Parx last September. His best race last year was his first, a second-place finish in the $100,000 Danger’s Hour on the Aqueduct turf. Two years ago, Chamois finished third, beaten a length, in the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico, and in 2013, he won turf stakes at Aqueduct and Delaware.
Clement has an exceptional 27 percent win rate with horses who have been off 180 days or longer. Chamois is not entered for the tag – which for a 6-year-old horse with only 15 starts could be seen as a vote of confidence.
War Dancer may have enough speed to push Chamois on the front end. He has not raced since Dec. 26, and he ended 2015 with two fourths and two sevenths in graded stakes. War Dancer, a 6-year-old trained by Bill Mott, has raced competitively with some of the nation’s top turf horses and won two graded stakes, but he hasn’t shown that kind of form since running second in the Grade 2 Bowling Green last August at Saratoga.
Casse also sends out Dynamic Impact, who won the Grade 3 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne in 2014. In his four starts since returning from a yearlong layoff last May, Dynamic Impact’s only win came in an optional claimer on turf at Gulfstream Park West in November, and he has not raced since finishing 12th in an optional claimer at Gulfstream in January. He is entered for a tag for the first time.