Recruiting Ready formidable facing softer company in Buffalo Man

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are plenty of promising 2-year-olds entered in the six stakes events on Saturday’s Juvenile Showcase card at Gulfstream Park, most notably Recruiting Ready, who will be the odds-on favorite to win the six-furlong Buffalo Man.

The Buffalo Man is one of three open stakes for 2-year-olds on Saturday’s attractive 11-race program, along with the one-mile Smooth Air and the Pulpit on turf. All three stakes are worth $75,000.

Recruiting Ready won his debut by 10 lengths last spring at Pimlico before catching several of the leading members of his division in three subsequent starts. He placed in a series of graded stakes, beginning with a second-place finish behind Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Classic Empire in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor. He was also second to Gunnevera, the Delta Jackpot winner, in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and third behind BC Juvenile runner-up Not This Time while stretching out to 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 Iroquois.

“He got caught with some really tough company in his last three starts,” said Horacio DePaz, who trains Recruiting Ready for Sagamore Farm. “He can run, he just got caught by some really nice colts. Hopefully, we’ll lighten up the company a little bit [on Saturday]. He’s had two good works since he’s been down here. We’ll just take him back to three-quarters and kind of focus on the sprinter series.”

Although there doesn’t appear to be any Classic Empires or Not This Times in the field, the Buffalo Man lured a good group of up-and-coming juveniles that includes trainer Todd Pletcher’s stakes-placed Sonic Mule, the stakes-placed Canadian invader Uncle B, and the recent maiden winners In His Image, Talk Logistics, and Vencedor.

“He’s pretty versatile. We just felt six furlongs is the right race for him at this time,” Pletcher said of Sonic Mule. “He’s already had five starts, including several stakes, and any time you have that kind of experience, it’s beneficial. Hopefully, that experience will pay off for him in this race.”

◗ Pletcher will send out the likely favorite, Fact Finding, in the Smooth Air. Fact Finding has won his first two starts by a combined seven lengths, winning his maiden this past summer at Saratoga and an entry-level allowance going 6 1/2 furlongs eight weeks ago at Keeneland.

“His first two races were good. Now we’re looking to stretch him out and see how he fits in a little longer race,” said Pletcher. “He can be a little lazy in the morning, so it gives us a little extra confidence that he can train like that and run the way he has in the afternoon, especially the way he beat allowance horses in his last start.”

Like Fact Finding, Basha is perfect in two starts and will be stretching out to a mile for the first time. Basha, a son of Uncle Mo, was a 7 3/4-length winner of his debut here Sept. 11. The final margin was much smaller, just 1 1/2 lengths, but the effort no less impressive when he overcame a very eventful trip to clear his entry-level allowance condition the following month at Gulfstream Park West.

Capitaine has shipped down from New York looking to bounce back from a third-place finish as the 1-5 favorite after stumbling at the start of the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct on Nov. 4. A son of Tapit trained by Mark Hennig, Capitaine turned in a bullet five-furlong work in 1:00.40 at Belmont Park on Nov. 25.

Sweetontheladies is the only stakes winner in the Smooth Air lineup, having shown a new dimension when rallying from far back to an impressive three-length decision in the 6 1/2-furlong Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream Park West four weeks ago.

◗ A full field of 14 2-year-olds signed on for the Pulpit, led by Pletcher’s pair of Lemonist and Master Plan. Both won their maidens at second asking on turf at Gulfstream Park West, Lemonist by 9 1/2 lengths and Master Plan by 2 1/2 lengths, both as odds-on favorites.

“Both are coming off big wins, and this is the next logical progression for each of them,” said Pletcher.

Trainer Chad Brown will counter the Pletcher pair with the recent maiden winner Concomitant, who graduated over a yielding course at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.

Other contenders include the stakes winner Whiskey Train; Avie’s Mesa, the fourth-place finisher in the Cup and Saucer at Woodbine; and the stakes-placed Salute With Honor.