Prince Lucky an easy winner in Gulfstream Park Mile

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As much as Prince Lucky towered over his five rivals in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Mile on paper was as much as he towered over them on the racetrack.

Prince Lucky performed very much like a 1-5 favorite, sparring with longshot All Golden through a modest half-mile before drawing off to a convincing 4 3/4-length victory in the Gulfstream Park Mile at Gulfstream Park.

Tale of Silence, the second choice at 5-1, finished second by five lengths over Guy Caballero. Be Gone Daddy, Millionaire Runner, and All Golden completed the order of finish.

Prince Lucky, a 4-year-old gelding, won for the sixth time in 10 starts. Earlier this meet, he won the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope by six lengths.

The win also gave trainer Todd Pletcher his second major victory on the day with a miler. Coal Front won the $1.5 million Godolphin Mile in Dubai.

Prince Lucky, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Corinthian owned and bred by Daniel McConnell, is now 3 for 4 since being gelded last April.

“After they gelded him, he’s a much better horse,” winning rider John Velazquez said. “He pays attention, he does the job. When he wasn’t a gelding, he was all over the place, he would not pay attention and he was pretty rough. He’s more settled.”

In the Gulfstream Park Mile, Velazquez wanted to settle Prince Lucky off the pace. But All Golden’s opening quarter of 24.14 seconds was too slow, so Velazquez guided Prince Lucky through an opening on the inside to challenge for the lead.

Velazquez said Marcos Meneses on All Golden “was sending his horse and couldn’t go. I wasn’t going to grab my horse to go outside of him. I might as well take the position that I had, and from then on it was pretty easy.”

Prince Lucky ran a half-mile in 47.04 seconds and six furlongs in 1:11.31 before Velazquez asked his horse to run and he ran away from the competition.

Prince Lucky covered the mile in 1:35.21 and returned $2.40.

While a race like the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park on June 8 may be on Prince Lucky’s agenda, Pletcher said “down the road we’ll try stretching out a little further.”