Stable virus slows down Joseph's title bid

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saffie Joseph Jr. was relatively light on entries as another race week began Wednesday at Gulfstream Park. Not to worry, said Joseph – he fully intends to maintain his quest in becoming the leading trainer at the championship meet for the first time.

“We had a virus go through the barn that affected us the last few weeks,” said Joseph. “I knew things would slow down a bit, but the horses are all over it now, for the most part. They’re training back, and we’re going to have a pretty big March, hopefully.”

Joseph has led the trainer standings since shortly after the championship meet began Dec. 3 and held a 37-32 lead over Todd Pletcher through last weekend. Pletcher, the highly decorated Hall of Famer, has been the leading trainer here every winter since 2003-04, not counting the 2018-19 meet when the since disgraced Jorge Navarro had the most wins. For the record, Gulfstream has retroactively awarded that particular meet to Pletcher in light of Navarro’s egregious transgressions.

Joseph, 35, has become the winningest trainer on the year-round South Florida circuit in recent years, but leading the four-month championship meet, which runs through April 3, would take him to another level.

“Pletcher is the king of Gulfstream,” said Joseph. “He’s dominated for so many years. We’re trying to follow his path, eventually.”

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Since arriving here in 2011 from his native Barbados, where in 2009 he won the country’s Triple Crown at age 22, Joseph has expanded his profile in American racing in an exponential way. Stable earnings for 2021 were more than $9 million, another career high, and he has a top Kentucky Derby contender in White Abarrio, a 4 1/2-length winner of the Feb. 5 Holy Bull.

White Abarrio will skip the March 5 Fountain of Youth and won’t race again until the April 2 Florida Derby. The gray colt had a similar gap between starts when the Holy Bull followed his third-place finish in the Nov. 27 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs.

“It’ll probably be three weeks from the Holy Bull to his next work,” said Joseph. “We’ll be following pretty much the same routine as we did after the Churchill race, hopefully with no interruptions.”

Joseph was at Tampa Bay Downs last week to saddle the previously unbeaten Make It Big in a Derby qualifier, the Sam F. Davis, but the colt finished 10th without an apparent excuse and is now off the Derby trail. “We’re going to back off him,” Joseph said.

The most accomplished older horse still in the Joseph barn is Drain the Clock, who last year at 3 defeated the eventual sprint champion Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens. Drain the Clock figures as a heavy favorite here Saturday in the weekend highlight, the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint.

“We’re intending this as a prep for him for the Dubai Golden Shaheen” on March 26, said Joseph. “He’s training very well into this race and hopefully this moves him forward even more.”

◗ Trainer Kenny McPeek said he is “leaning toward” the Fountain of Youth as the comeback race for Rattle N Roll as the colt continues to progress toward his first start since he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October. The fourth and most recent work for Rattle N Roll since he returned to training was a half-mile breeze in 50.20 seconds last Saturday at Gulfstream.

Rattle N Roll is owned by the Lucky Seven Stable, which will be represented Saturday by favored Smile Happy in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds. McPeek said the March 12 Tampa Bay Derby is an alternate spot for Rattle N Roll in case he needs to bypass the Fountain of Youth.

◗ Search Results, one of the top performers among 3-year-old fillies last year, continues to draw closer to her 4-year-old debut, which trainer Chad Brown said should come sometime next month. The daughter of Flatter went a bullet half-mile in 48.40 seconds Monday at Payson Park in her fifth work in a 30-day span.