Swift sprinter High Front highlights spring meet opener

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2021-22 Championship meet is over, but racing on the South Florida circuit won’t miss a beat. Gulfstream Park’s spring session kicks off Thursday with an eight-race program that includes the first juvenile race of the year and a pair of allowance events, the first of which features the speedy 3-year-old High Front taking on older horses going five furlongs on the turf in race 6.

Racing during the spring will be conducted Thursdays through Sundays. There are 15 races on the stakes calendar, topped by the Grade 2, $250,000 Princess Rooney Invitational, a Win and You’re In event for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Run at seven furlongs on July 2, the Princess Rooney was won last season by Ce Ce, who four months later captured the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and ultimately the Eclipse Award as top female sprinter of 2021.

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The Princess Rooney will kick off a big July 4 holiday weekend of racing that will also feature the Grade 3 Smile Sprint and $75,000 Bob Umphrey Sprint, to be run over the Tapeta course for the first time.

Turf racing will continue at Gulfstream Park until early June, when construction of a new course is scheduled to begin. Nine of the races on the stakes program are carded for the grass, starting with the $75,000 English Channel and $75,000 Honey Ryder on May 7.

High Front’s only start was a wire-to-wire 6 1/2-length maiden special weight victory here in January for which he received an 87 Beyer Speed Figure. High Front is an Augustin Stable homebred by Summer Front trained by Jonathan Thomas. Luis Saez, who won the Championship meet jockey title, will stay around the local area long enough to ride High Front before heading to Keeneland the following day.

“He’s a horse we liked going into his first start, although to be honest we were surprised with how well he ran,” said Thomas.

High Front missed an opportunity to run back as originally planned two months later when entered in both an allowance race at the Fair Grounds on March 25 and the Texas Glitter here the following day as a backup. Thomas was forced to scratch his horse from the Fair Grounds race after the van company advised it was too dangerous to ship the horse from Florida to Louisiana because of a tornado outbreak in New Orleans. Despite the extenuating circumstances, the Fair Grounds stewards would not allow him to run in the Texas Glitter here that weekend, either.

“I think the Fair Grounds stewards made that situation a little more problematic than it needed to be,” said Thomas. “The racing secretary here did all they could to get them to allow the horse to run in the Texas Glitter, but they would not relent.”

Thomas said the Thursday race works from a timing standpoint for High Front, who will target the Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on May 6 at Churchill Downs.

“Obviously it’s not ideal facing older horses, although I don’t think it’s as big an issue going five furlongs, and he is getting six pounds,” Thomas said, referring to the race Thursday. “We’re just looking for another step forward with the thought he needs to show he can be competitive against these types of horses if he’s going to compete against the best of his generation down the road.”

High Front’s seven rivals includes Discreet Tune, who returns to allowance company after finishing fourth in the Tampa Bay Downs Turf Dash on Feb. 19, and Ice Chocolat, who makes his U.S. debut after winning three of four starts in his native Brazil, including a Group 3 stakes in November.

In race 2, seven 2-year-old fillies run in a maiden race at 4 1/2 furlongs. The group is led by Cajun Hope, whose dam, Pop Pop’s Hope, has produced nine winners. Cajun Hope’s full sister Cajun’s Cousin won a $25,000 maiden claiming race at the same distance by nine lengths in her second start last spring here.

Keanu, an Arindel homebred by Brethren trained by Carlos David, also figures to take some action, as might Luna West, who is a full sister to Hard West, a six time winner of nearly $100,000.

◗ Saez went wire to wire to capture his third Gulfstream Park Championship meet riding title with 122 wins, 28 more than runner-up Tyler Gaffalione. Saez dethroned Irad Ortiz Jr., who’d won the last three winter meet titles. Ortiz missed nearly the entire first month of the session due to riding suspensions handed down in New York in early December. Saez was also the leader in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Saffie Joseph Jr. won his first Championship meet training title, saddling 58 winners including White Abarrio in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby. Todd Pletcher, the winter training champion here the previous 18 seasons. finished second with 46 victories.