Requite takes next step in Big Cypress
Requite, whose career has been managed carefully by trainer George Weaver, will try to punch his ticket to bigger and better things during the second half of his 3-year-old campaign in Sunday’s $60,000 Big Cypress Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Requite’s first try in stakes competition came in no less a spot than the Grade 1 Hopeful last summer at Saratoga following an impressive debut win four weeks earlier. But Requite finished a distant fourth behind the odds-on winner, Competitive Edge.
Weaver said Requite returned from the Hopeful with a huge ulcer in his eye. Weaver pulled the plug on his 2-year-old campaign soon afterward when he became unhappy with the way Requite was training for the Champagne.
Requite made his 3-year-old debut at Gulfstream on May 9, overcoming early trouble to dominate older optional-claiming company and earning a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure. He was racing with Lasix for the first time.
“The only option I had in New York against 3-year-olds was the Woody Stephens, and I thought it was too big a test to go up against Competitive Edge again at this point,” said Weaver.
The Big Cypress also features the return of Sing Praises, who won two of the three legs of last year’s Florida Stallion Series. Sing Praises sandwiched victories in the series in the Dr. Fager and In Reality around a loss by a neck to stablemate Twotwentyfive A in the Affirmed. Trainer Stanley Gold said he has been frustrated trying to get a race for Sing Praises, who was given the winter off following his third-place finish behind Mr. Jordan in Gulfstream Park West’s Juvenile Sprint in November.
Sing Praises will be joined in the Big Cypress by stablemate Southern Barbecue, an impressive allowance winner while returning from a seven-month layoff going a mile May 10.
Royal Squeeze was awarded the victory via the disqualification of the odds-on Mr. Jordan in the Tarpon overnight stakes April 25. That was Royal Squeeze’s first start since being transferred to trainer Marty Wolfson’s barn this spring.
Grand Bili returns to south Florida after an eventful start cost him all chances of winning in the Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico. Grand Bili showed much promise in his only two prior starts, winning his debut over Todd Pletcher’s highly regarded first-time starter Tennessee on Feb. 1 and finishing second behind the favored Chipit in an entry-level allowance race 10 weeks later.
Key contenders
Requite (Last 3 Beyers: 85-52-77)
◗ Will try seven furlongs for the first time since the Hopeful, and Weaver is interested to see how he’ll handle the stretch-out from six furlongs in his comeback race. “I’m curious about the extra furlong,” Weaver said. “I didn’t want to ask him to do that and at the same time go up against Competitive Edge in the Woody Stephens.”
Sing Praises (Last 3 Beyers: 71-72-65)
◗ For all his success at 2, Sing Praises will have to raise his game from a Beyer standpoint to compete against open company. He is the 121-pound highweight.
Southern Barbecue (Last 3 Beyers: 81-37-58)
◗ He turned in an impressive effort off the bench while posting a Beyer 23 points higher than his previous best.
Royal Squeeze (Last 3 Beyers: 86-62-79)
◗ The fastest horse in the field from a Beyer standpoint off his win in the Tarpon.
◗ He was beaten a nose by Sing Praises when the pair met in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality at 2.