Sweetontheladies needs quick pace in Opening Lead

Sweetontheladies won four of his first six career starts, including a pair of stakes. He has not visited the winner’s circle since, a 21-race streak that dates back to his victory in the Crystal River Handicap at Gulfstream Park in June 2017.

Trainer Henry Collazo is hoping Sunday will be the day Sweetontheladies finally gets back on the winning track when he faces six rivals in the $75,000 Opening Lead, the main event on an 11-race card at Gulfstream Park.

Collazo knows everything will have to go Sweetontheladies way if he’s to run down the likes of expected favorite Cautious Giant, Harryhee, and Fast Pass in the six-furlong Opening Lead. Namely, he’ll need a contentious pace and a clean trip from the rail under his new rider Jose Batista.

“He’s blue collar, honest as the day gets long, and as long as he stays healthy and he doesn’t have a pimple on him, he can win any time under the right circumstances,” Collazo said. “But we’ve all watched enough races here at Gulfstream to know you need to be forwardly placed on the main track, especially in these types of sprints for sure, and it’s hard to run them down from where he usually is turning for home.”

Although he hasn’t won a race in nearly two years, Sweetontheladies has run well enough during that period to have amassed earnings of more than $400,000 for the ownership team of Four Horsemen Racing Stable and Lady Lindsay Racing Stable. He’s also been graded stakes placed on numerous occasions, a list of solid efforts that includes a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt behind Imperial Hint last summer at Saratoga.

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“The rail draw should be good for him because he’s already in good position right away without having to come across anyone to get to the inside,” Collazo said. “What I need, what he needs, is pace. It’s as pure and simple as that.”

There should be plenty of pace in the Opening Lead with the hard-knocking veteran Harryhee and Shoshone Brave expected to vie for the early advantage with Cautious Giant looming close behind from his outside post.

Harryhee turns back to his preferred distance after finishing a sharp second stretching out to seven furlongs for owner-trainer Brett McLellen earlier this month. Rarely headed for the early lead, Harryhee will be returning to stakes competition for the first time since finishing second, beaten a head by Cautious Giant, in the six-furlong Trinniberg late last summer.

Cautious Giant is coming off one of the best races of his career, a hard-fought, three-quarter-length decision over Sweetontheladies’s stablemate Field Trip going 5 1/2 furlongs under optional-claiming conditions May 17. Cautious Giant received a lifetime-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure after completing the distance in a near-record 1:02.44 under regular rider Emisael Jaramillo for trainer Victor Barboza Jr.

Fast Pass also would benefit from a lively pace. The stretch-running gelding exits a popular last-to-first, half-length optional-claiming tally when turning back to six panels April 25.