In September 2023, trainer Ron Spatz watched Private Thoughts make his debut and knew he had a live runner. The juvenile was clearly green and probably wasn’t staying on dirt for long, but Spatz was still impressed when he overcame a slow start to bull through the field and win by 2 1/4 lengths. “In hindsight, it was probably an accident that he won first time out,” Spatz said. “These Neolithic [foals], a good portion of them don’t really dirt. He was just coming around, and I like to start a horse off on the surface they’re training on. But he had an inside post, and he got bumped about an eighth of a mile into the race and kind of got knocked into the rail. And I think he got mad. I just remember him just taking off. He ran wild.” The gelding has come a long way in two years. Gradually settling down as a 3-year-old, he stretched out in distance and improved on both turf and synthetic before sustaining an injury. Since returning to Gulfstream Park in August, the Florida-bred has flourished as a 4-year-old, winning three straight starts while stepping up in class. On Sunday, he will be a serious contender against familiar rivals in the $70,000 Empire Builder Handicap. The Empire Builder, a mile race on turf, is the second-to-last leg in the Rainbow 6. The sequence also features two claiming races, two maiden races, and a starter allowance. When Private Thoughts came back in an allowance for Florida-breds over the summer and won impressively by a half-length, Spatz had no way of knowing how high the gelding could climb. He moved into open company in September and won an allowance in even more convincing fashion on synthetic, earning a career-best 88 Beyer Speed Figure. On Oct. 4, he returned to turf and won the Jet Propulsion Handicap by a head. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now. “I’m always going in saying, ‘Wow, I don’t know if he’s good enough for this. This is his acid test,’ ” Spatz said. “And he keeps passing. So as long as he keeps passing and developing, you know, we’ll keep elevating.” In the Empire Builder, Private Thoughts will break from the far outside post in the field of 12. Spatz is deeply uncomfortable with the draw and said that he would scratch if there was any alternative, but the plan is also clear. Jockey Leonel Reyes will likely have to hustle to secure a position near the front, at which point Spatz can only hope that they don’t get caught too wide. In many ways, a wide post is simply something else to deal with for Spatz, who has been tested by his gelding’s idiosyncrasies throughout his career. Private Thoughts often used to hop out of the starting gate, but the trainer and several jockeys figured out that they could work around it by rushing him to the front. He has a tendency to ease up after securing a lead, so Spatz and Reyes have worked to further develop his stalking style. Once a finicky type, Private Thoughts has made his own luck as a 4-year-old and will have to make some more from the challenging post on Sunday. All four horses who finished behind Private Thoughts in the Jet Propulsion will try the gelding again in the Empire Builder. Relampago Verde, a 5-year-old gelding trained by Bobby Dibona, came up short by a head that day in his first turf race since the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Stakes in February. Lorenz, the third-place finisher behind Private Thoughts last time out, will return for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who also has the likely favorite in the race. Divin Propos, a 5-year-old gelding, has run in graded stakes company on turf in his last seven starts and will get significant class relief from post 11. * There is a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 jackpot for Sunday’s card. The Rainbow 6 begins with race 6. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.