Pletcher's Uptown Lights favored in Tapeta maiden race
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With nary an allowance race on the card, Friday’s feature race at Gulfstream Park, in theory, is a $35,000 optional-claiming and starter-allowance event for 3-year-olds. The race drew a field of nine that is loaded with speed and figures to have the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Unsociable going postward the solid favorite.
But the richest and certainly most intriguing race of the day is a $50,000 maiden special weight dash, also restricted to 3-year-olds, to be decided over the Tapeta course. Seven will go postward, including the heavily favored Uptown Lights and Ocotzingo, a half-brother to the champion mare Letruska.
Uptown Lights projects to be the solid choice for trainer Todd Pletcher, despite having been idle since launching his career with a second-place finish under similar conditions over the Tapeta course here in October. Besides having earned a 73 Beyer Speed Figure for that effort, which easily trumps anything the four other experienced members of the field have posted to date, more noteworthy is the fact the fifth-place finisher that afternoon was none other than Simplification, who has since gone on to rank among the top contenders for this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Uptown Lights is not short on breeding either. The son of Speightstown is out of Aurora Lights, a multiple graded stakes winner on dirt, which makes him a half-brother to the Grade 3-placed Aurora Way. Uptown Lights sports a series of six works dating back to March 3 at Palm Beach Downs. In the most recent work, five furlongs in 1:02 on April 8, he was asked to complete a full seven furlongs to assure he’d be fit and ready for his return.
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Although he finished far back in his two previous starts, Ocotzingo also exits a key race, the ninth event here March 12 that was won by the highly regarded Unikiee. Two of the three horses to have since run out of the race have captured their next starts, including Emirates Road, an impressive maiden special weight winner with an 82 Beyer Figure last Saturday at Keeneland. Ocotzingo will be trying the synthetic surface for the first time Friday.
Two other intriguing prospects in the lineup are Super Quality and Codys Express. The former flashed high speed before stopping badly to finish far back in his debut. A $300,000 purchase as a 2-year-old at the OBS April sale in 2021, Super Quality had shown plenty of talent prepping for his career bow, having held his own and then some on two separate occasions in the morning with stablemate Nitrous Channel, a well-backed and impressive debut winner and later runner-up in the Hutcheson as the odds-on favorite earlier this winter. Super Quality will race with blinkers off in his second start.
Codys Express also is extremely well bred. The son of Mr Speaker is a half to both Grade 2-placed Three Technique and four-time graded stakes-placed Stan the Man. He too has had plenty of foundation working for his debut on a regular basis at Palm Meadows since late December.