Tampa Bay notes: Good Lord breaks track record

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Take a dead-honest racehorse in the hands of a top-flight horseman, then add a jockey riding in top form, and you have a dangerous combination.

Good Lord’s eight rivals found that out Saturday. Forrest Kaelin, who has been training for more than 50 years, sent out the 6-year-old to capture the 23rd running of the $75,000 Super Stakes in track-record time.

Good Lord was compromised by a quarter crack last winter that was discovered near the end of the Tampa meeting. He stepped up his game after that problem was addressed and now has won 5 of his last 8 starts, all against stakes company.

His final clocking of 1:22.03 for seven furlongs eclipsed the old mark of 1:22.13 set by Manicero in 2011.

Kaelin, who has trained a number of top horses during his career, including multiple stakes winner Faneuil Hall, is 78 but is fit as a fiddle and enjoys going after big bass from his camp on Lake Okeechobee when he’s not saddling stakes winners.

Fernando De La Cruz, who has been the hottest rider on the grounds the past three weeks, contributed a very professional effort aboard Good Lord as the pair outgamed favored Action Andy through a long stretch duel and just got up late by three-quarters of a length.

Garcia riding in top form

Luis Garcia has very quietly been having a good meeting and scored his 14th win of the stand with a well-judged ride aboard Sister Earth for trainer Leigh Delacour in Saturday’s sixth race, an optional claiming route at a mile and 40 yards. He came back Sunday to add another win to his total.

Garcia, who perennially ranks among the riding leaders in Maryland, rides the bulk of the Delacour runners both here and up north during the summer and fall. Nine of his wins at this meet have come on Delacour horses. A patient, sit-still-type rider, Garcia won on the front end with Sister Earth, but is probably best on stalkers and late closers and excels on the turf.