Spanish Point will have to wait to feel the Boerne again

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Trainer Jorge Abreu recently shipped the majority of his stable from Palm Meadows back to New York in anticipation of the opening of the Belmont Park meeting this week. But the up-and-coming young conditioner left four horses behind with his brother Fernando at Gulfstream Park, including the stakes-winning Spanish Point and graded stakes-tested Nettleton.

Abreu was eagerly anticipating running Spanish Point second off the layoff in Saturday’s $75,000 Game Face, where she would have another opportunity to compete against the red-hot Boerne, who’ll be the odds-on favorite to win for the fourth straight time in the 6 1/2-furlong dash for 3-year-old fillies. But that rematch will have to wait another day after Abreu took Spanish Point out of consideration for the Game Face shortly before entry time on Wednesday.

“We kept her down there specifically for this race,” said Abreu. “But she coughed a little when galloping this morning and when we scoped her she came up with some mucus, maybe a 2 on a scale of 5, so we can’t take the chance of running now.”

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Spanish Point opened her career with a pair of impressive victories at 2, the first at Belmont, the second in the House Party Stakes in her local debut last November. After finishing third as the favorite in the Glitter Woman in her 3-year-old bow, Abreu shipped her to New York for a stakes at Aqueduct, where she never got the opportunity to compete because the track was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The day she was supposed to run at Aqueduct was the day they canceled racing up there,” said Abreu. “It really forced me to take a step back with her because she had to ship all the way back to Florida and spend two weeks in quarantine in Ocala before I got her back to my barn at Palm Meadows.”

Spanish Point finished fourth, beaten 7 1/2 lengths by Boerne, when finally getting back to the races under allowance conditions here on May 3.

“She ran okay last time, she got a little tired, but she’s been training really well since then and I was looking forward to running her again Saturday,” said Abreu.

Abreu has Nettleton entered under allowance conditions in Friday’s co-feature scheduled for the turf but which is in peril of being switched to the main track with more rain in the forecast. Nettleton won his career debut over yielding turf last summer at Belmont before closing out his 3-year-old campaign by finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Bourbon at Keeneland and sixth here in the Pulpit on November 30.

“He had three hard races last season and didn’t look the same after the last one so I gave him some time off,” said Abreu. “I might run him Friday even if the race comes off the grass, although either way he’ll stay down there for a while where the competition will be so much easier than in New York.”

The Game Face was one of three stakes races drawn Wednesday for Saturday’s card along with the $100,000 Ginger Punch and Soldier’s Dancer, both of which are scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Along with Boerne, the field for the Game Face will include Addilyn, Compensate, Dream Marie, Malibeauty, Vast, We Miss Susie, and Up In Smoke, who goes back to a sprint after suffering her first setback in four starts in the 1 1/16-mile Hollywood Wildcat three weeks earlier.