Red-hot Gargan considering soft spot for Tax

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Between Gulfstream Park and Aqueduct, Danny Gargan has won at a 40 percent clip over the last two months. And the Kentucky-born trainer has no intent of slowing down.

“When you’ve got good owners and good horses like I do right now, you ought to win at a high percentage,” Gargan said. “I’m very fortunate to have both.”

The best horse in his 40-horse stable is Tax, who might soon be adding to the hot streak. Gargan said he is seriously considering Tax for the $60,000 Old Hickory, one of a dozen starter-allowance races scheduled to be run at Gulfstream on the Presidents Day holiday card Monday.

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Tax is eligible for the conditions of the Old Hickory, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race, because he ran for a $30,000 claiming tag in his September 2018 debut. Gargan claimed him for $50,000 from his second start.

Winner of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy last summer at Saratoga, Tax was ninth as the 4-1 third choice in his last race, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream.

“He didn’t run his race in the Pegasus,” Gargan said. “He bounced out of it so good that I’d like to use the Old Hickory as a springboard to another big race, maybe over at Oaklawn Park.”

Tax had his first work since the Pegasus when breezing a half-mile Monday in 48.80 seconds at the Palm Meadows training center.

Through Sunday, when he won the finale at Gulfstream with Lookin At Roses ($4.80) for Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Gargan had won with 16 of his last 40 starters between Florida and New York. He is 8 for 21 at the Gulfstream championship meet, which began Nov. 29, and 8 for 19 at the Aqueduct winter meet, which started Dec. 12.

Lookin At Roses, incidentally, was the sixth winner on the card for leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. The Gulfstream record for most wins in a day is seven.

With racing being conducted here Monday, normally a dark day, Gulfstream will be dark Tuesday and Wednesday.