Sunshine Millions Classic still in plans for Wildcat Red

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wildcat Red, who closed out his 3-year-old campaign with a third-place finish in the Sunshine Millions Classic Preview at Gulfstream Park West, just stretched his legs a bit through an easy half-mile in 52.26 seconds here Friday under regular exercise rider Peter Shelton.

Wildcat Red won 3 of 10 starts and earned almost $850,000 this season, with his most important victory coming in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth here Feb. 22.

“Today was just a warm-up,” said trainer Jose Garoffalo. “Next week, he’ll have a more serious work with the jockey to start to put him into the game.”

Garoffalo continues to point Wildcat Red for the Sunshine Millions Classic on Jan. 17 despite the fact that the purse has been cut from $350,000 to $250,000 and that the race has been opened up to include New York-, Pennsylvania-, and Maryland-breds instead of being restricted to Florida-breds.

“We’re going to run him anyway,” said Garoffalo. “He loves this track, and it’s probably not going to be too tough a spot for him anyway.”

Garoffalo said he is undecided as to who will ride Wildcat Red in his 4-year-old bow. Edgar Prado was aboard for the first time in the Sunshine Millions Preview and is among the possible choices, along with Luis Saez, who rode Wildcat Red to victory in the Fountain of Youth, and Javier Castellano, who guided him to an easy win in the Grade 3 Hutcheson.

Smooth Daddy eyes Tropical Derby

Nominations are out for the Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds and its filly counterpart, the Tropical Park Oaks, with both at 1 1/16 miles over the turf here Dec. 20.

Among those likely to start in the Tropical Park Derby is the Tom Albertrani-trained Smooth Daddy, who set the pace before finishing third behind Ring Weekend in the Grade 3 Hill Prince at Belmont Park in his New York finale. Trainer Shug McGaughey is expected to counter with Ironicus, who has not finished off the board in four career starts on grass.

◗ Prado and Edgard Zayas both posted riding doubles here Thursday. Prado won the second race aboard the promising 2-year-old Get Down Kitten for trainer Mike Maker and the ninth race on longshot Shadow Rock for trainer Charles Dickey. Zayas moved to the top of the leaderboard in the jockeys’ standings after winning the fifth race with the first-time starter Get Creative and the finale on the 24-1 shot Forever for Always.