Pletcher sends out a sharp Soldado in Thursday feature
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the coronavirus crisis overriding most everything in life – let alone horse racing – quite a few events that otherwise would have merited attention within the racing industry figure to receive short shrift in the weeks and months to come.
This applies to goings-on at Gulfstream Park, where the final week of the 2019-20 championship meet is scheduled to run through Sunday. Todd Pletcher is trying to reclaim the training title he had won a record 15 straight years, but Mike Maker isn’t going to let it happen without an argument.
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Into the final five days, Pletcher held a 41-39 edge in wins over Maker, with both having sent out a similar number of starters (179-177, respectively) at the meet, which began Nov. 29. Remarkably, Pletcher was the leading trainer here every winter from 2004-18, with the streak snapped last year when he was second to Jorge Navarro, whose stable was disbanded earlier this month following his indictment on federal doping charges.
Assuming racing continues uninterrupted at Gulfstream – the pandemic has shuttered many tracks across the map for an indefinite period – it will be interesting to see whether Pletcher can hold on for another training title. Highly eligible to help his cause is Soldado, who surely will be favored when the lone allowance of a 10-race card is run Thursday afternoon before another spectator-free grandstand.
Soldado, a mere $8,000 purchase as a 2-year-old of 2018, earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure in winning here Feb. 6 in his first start in nearly 10 months. The Verrazano colt drew raves at once here last winter when getting a 91 Beyer in his career debut, and the impressive nature of his comeback suggests he could become a player in the upper sprint ranks given further progress.
Luis Saez, who has ridden Soldado in all four prior starts, once again will have the mount when they break from post 1 in race 9, a $52,000 second-level allowance that drew a field of 10 older horses going six furlongs.
Saez’s career has been managed in recent years by Richard DePass, who will retire quietly at week’s end at age 67 following a lifetime in racing as a jockey and agent.
Among the notable opposition for Soldado is Mihos, who returns from a nearly half-year layoff when adding blinkers in search of his first victory since he captured the Mucho Macho Man here in January 2019, along with a handful entered for an optional $62,500 claiming tag, including Belle Tapisserie, Where Paradise Lay, and Balandeen.
First post Thursday is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the feature (5:07 p.m.) being part of a Rainbow 6 sequence that spans races 5-10. A pool guarantee of at least $1.9 million was projected for Thursday, with the jackpot standing at $1,331,990 through Sunday action.