Risk Factor back from layoff in Thursday feature
Rohan Crichton was born in New York and grew up in Jamaica, the son of a horse owner who started going to the track as a young child. Even when he went off to university after high school, he pined for a career as a trainer. Nowadays, Crichton is a partner in an accounting firm, but in 2013, he took out a trainer’s license and now trains 10 horses as a side job. The fastest of them may be Risk Factor, who makes his first start since November and just his second since January 2015 in the featured third race Thursday at Gulfstream.
Risk Factor is one of just five entrants in a six-furlong dirt sprint with multiple allowance conditions and a $62,500 claiming option under which Gryvond, Singanothersong, and Dreaming of Neno are entered. The race’s fifth and youngest starter is the 4-year-old More Applause.
“I’ve owned horses for a long time, but I started training as a hobby three years ago,” Crichton said. “It’s started to become more than that. I got up to 25 horses, and that was too much, and I had to get things back under control. Hopefully, in five years, I can sell my practice and train more.”
The 6-year-old Risk Factor has resided in several barns; Crichton had him for four starts in late 2014 and early 2015. Risk Factor performed well then, finishing second to Speechify in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes in 2014. Risk Factor finished third in the Pelican Stakes at Tampa on Jan. 24, 2015, but didn’t race again until last November, when he showed up at Penn National for trainer Scott Lake and barely picked up his feet in an allowance race.
“He had minor surgery, typical horse issues. He’s actually very sound now, training great, doing very well, and I expect him to run good,” said Crichton. “The thing about Risk Factor that’s most compelling is his heart. You never know where their heart is after a long break.”
Risk Factor breezed at a training center before getting in two drills at Gulfstream Park West, the last of them a near-bullet half-mile gate drill April 23. He’s typically run well at Gulfstream, where he’s 3-3-0 from 7 starts, and is well drawn in post 4 to use his early speed with the right jockey to dole it out. Crichton has long used Jocelyn Gomez as his primary jockey, and Gomez, good from the gate and on the lead, has had an excellent month at Gulfstream, winning with seven of her 19 mounts during the meet that began April 6.
More Applause, who breaks from the rail, and Dreaming of Neno, drawn outside of Risk Factor and one of two in the race for trainer Jorge Navarro, look like the other pace players. Gryvon, Navarro’s other entrant, is a stalking type who’s in good form and might get a favorable trip. Singanothersong’s recent form suggests a horse that at this point in his career only wants to race on turf.