Power Alert seeks threepeat in Silks Run Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Brian Lynch won’t have to look too far to find a horse who loves the Gulfstream Park turf course more than his multiple graded stakes winner Heart to Heart. He’ll just have to glance down the shed row at Power Alert, who will attempt to win for the sixth time in as many starts over the local sod when he goes postward as the favorite in Saturday’s $75,000 Silks Run.

Power Alert has proven repeatedly that not only does he love Gulfstream Park, he also knows where the wire is. He is the two-time defending champ in both the Silks Run and Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, both at five furlongs on the grass. He won the 2015 Silks Run by a half-length and retained the title by three parts of a length last winter, both times at the expense of Amelia’s Wild Ride.

He’s cut it even closer in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, which he’s won by margins of a neck and again by a nose when launching his 7-year-old campaign Jan. 28.

“He seems to like this strip, and he seems to get good this time of year,” Lynch said. “He particularly likes the five-eighths-of-a-mile distance. I don’t know whether it’s the configuration of the track, but he just handles it so well. His record speaks for itself.”

Power Alert will carry 120 pounds under the allowance conditions of the Silks Run, two fewer than 2015 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday, who finished 10th, beaten four lengths by Power Alert, in the Gulfstream Turf Sprint. Mongolian Saturday has won just once in seven starts since he upset the Breeders’ Cup.

There will be plenty of pace for Power Alert and Mongolian Saturday to run at in the Silks Run, with Canadian Flyer, Pay Any Price, and Moonwalker all likely to have a say in the early running.

Conquest Tsunami, a stakes winner on both turf and dirt, the late-running Super Spender, and the red-hot Chia Ghost also are among the key contenders in the wide-open overnight event.

The Silks Run shares top billing on Saturday’s card with its filly counterpart, the $75,000 Captiva Island. The race drew a surprisingly compact field of only seven turf-sprint specialists, led by Pretty Perfection, who rallied to a 1 1/2-length victory in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint here six weeks ago for trainer Kelly Breen.

Pretty Perfection will carry the top weight of 120 pounds, including regular rider Nik Juarez, in search of her third straight victory. Her chief competition likely will come from multiple stakes winners Ruby Notion and Brandy’s Girl or Nite Delite.

Ruby Notion, fifth, beaten less than four lengths, in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot as a 2-year-old in 2015 for trainer Wesley Ward, won both the Colleen on turf and the Selima over a sloppy track later that season. But she’s started just once since closing out her juvenile campaign, finishing 13th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“She’s been doing great,” Ward said. “Her last work was her best of the whole winter. Ironically, it was on dirt; she’d been working on the grass. This race is here, so we’re going to go on the grass, and if it comes off, we’ll be there, too.”

Nite Delite has turned in two sizzling workouts over the local turf course since her fourth-place finish in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint, including five furlongs in 45.46 seconds while less than all out, here last Sunday for trainer Linda Rice.