Prevalence makes comeback in wide-open turf sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – They’ve saved the best for last Sunday at Gulfstream Park – a $92,000 allowance race that drew an extremely wide-open, stakes-caliber lineup that is scheduled to duke it out at five furlongs on the turf, weather permitting.

With a long-range forecast calling for a better than 50 percent chance of rain over the local area on Sunday, there is the prospect the main event could wind up being decided at the same distance over the Tapeta course.

Nine of the 10 entrants in the headliner are proven commodities on either grass and/or synthetic surfaces. That group that includes the graded stakes winners Yes I Am Free and That’s Right, stakes winners High Limit Room and Run Curtis, the graded stakes-placed Axthelm, and the multiple stakes-placed pair of Smokin’ Jay and Script. At their best, all are capable of winning the nightcap.

The most intriguing member of the lineup, however, is Prevalence, who will be making just his second career start on grass if Mother Nature doesn’t get in the way. A Godolphin homebred, Prevalence owns the highest last-race Beyer Speed Figure in the field, a 91 earned for his second-place finish in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint on last year’s Preakness undercard.

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He returns Sunday as a first-time gelding for trainer Brendan Walsh off a solid five-furlong grass work at Palm Meadows one week earlier.

“We gave him a little time after his last run; gelded him, he’s ready to run. This race came up, so we’re going to give him another go at the turf and see how he does sprinting,” said Walsh. “The first one was around two turns and to be honest, that really isn’t his best game on dirt either. If this works, we’ll continue on with it. If not, we’ll just put him back on the dirt again.”

Prevalence appeared a star in the making when launching his career with a pair of wins over the main track here during the winter of 2021. He’s been a bit of an underachiever ever since, although he has shown flashes of brilliance along the way, such as his 2 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Commonwealth at Keeneland in April 2022.

“Obviously he hasn’t turned out to be the horse we initially thought he might be, but he’s had his issues and we’ve had to start and stop with him several times along the way,” said Walsh. “On his day, though, he’s been very good. He ran great winning the Commonweath and again on Preakness Day last year. Hopefully we can get a good run from him Sunday and a nice run of races out of him after that.”

Yes I Am Free won the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint here a year ago while That’s Right became a Grade 3 winner when capturing Parx’s Turf Monster during the fall of 2022. Both did so in gate-to-wire fashion, and should assure a very lively and honest pace squaring off for the first time.

Axthelm has gone winless but been a pretty consistent sort from a Beyer standpoint for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. since capturing a softer optional-claiming and allowance race here in March of 2023. He is one of several in this lineup that would benefit from a lively pace scenario. He will be racing in blinkers of the first time Sunday.

“He’s been a little too far back in his races. Hopefully blinkers will put him a little closer and make him a little handier,” Joseph explained when asked about the equipment change.

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Script figures to be coming on best of all at the end while turning back to five furlongs for the first time after finishing third, beaten less than a length, going 1 1/16 miles under similar optional-claiming and allowance conditions here on New Year’s Day.

Full Disclosure would certainly move up if rain forces the race to be switched to the Tapeta course. He has registered four of his seven career victories over the synthetic surface, including a game 1 1/4-length decision in a starter allowance dash here four weeks earlier.

- additional reporting by David Grening

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