Team Colors takes second crack at Skip Away Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After Team Colors finished second here at Gulfstream Park a year ago in the Grade 3 Skip Away Stakes, trainer Jimmy Jerkens was looking forward to a big year for the promising son of Street Cry. Unfortunately for him, Team Colors sustained an injury while training up to the Westchester that kept him sidelined for the remainder of the season.

On Saturday, Jerkens is hoping another big effort in the Skip Away will propel Team Colors to bigger and better things in 2017. Team Colors is one of six horses entered for the 1 1/16-mile Skip Away, a group led by the Grade 2-placed Zulu.

The Skip Away is one of two stakes on Saturday’s 13-race card. The other is the $75,000 Any Limit for 3-year-old fillies.

Team Colors finished second behind Valid over a sloppy track in the 2016 Skip Away. He also placed in two turf stakes at age 3, the English Channel at Belmont Park and locally in the Tropical Park Derby.

“I think he likes the dirt a little better than the turf,” said Jerkens. “He got a fracture getting ready for the Westchester last year, the surgery went real well, and he hasn’t missed a beat since he came back to me.”

Team Colors launched his comeback by finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope here on Jan. 14 before returning with a strong effort while moving back to grass last month.

“It wasn’t a great spot to run him in his first start back. He made a middle move and flattened out,” Jerkens said, referring to Team Colors’s effort in the Hal’s Hope. “There wasn’t anywhere to run him on dirt after that, so I put him on the turf, and he ran pretty well. He’s trained pretty well ever since. He acts like he’s got his stuff together, and I would think having had two races, I expect him to run a big race on Saturday.”

Zulu was also stopped on last spring following a disappointing performance in the Blue Grass Stakes and, like Team Colors, has had two starts on the comeback trail entering the Skip Away, including a victory in the seven-furlong Tamarac on Dec. 18. Zulu, who finished second after pressing the pace here a year ago in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, was never a factor in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap in his 2017 debut.

“He never really got into a good rhythm,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “It wasn’t his best race, but he seemed to bounce out of it well. We’re trying to figure out what his best distance is. We want to run him again at Gulfstream just because overall, he’s had quite a bit of success here.”

The stakes-placed Fear the Cowboy has started at six different tracks in his last seven starts. He began his career locally for trainer Efren Loza Jr., winning an overnight stakes going seven furlongs here during the summer of 2015.

Flashy Jewel figures to set the pace after using ample speed to wire starter-allowance opposition going 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 29. Claimed by trainer Eddie Kenneally for $25,000 out of a winning effort at Churchill Downs in November, Flashy Jewel turned in a big effort in defeat here earlier in the meet when second behind the odds-on favorite Greenpointcrusader on Jan. 27.

◗ A field of seven 3-year-old fillies will contest the six-furlong Any Limit, with the undefeated Who’s the Lady and graded-stakes-tested Cursor likely to vie for favoritism.

Who’s the Lady remained perfect in three starts by outlasting Truge and Faith N Hope to win a $50,000 starter-allowance dash here earlier this month.

Cursor has not started since finishing fourth, beaten four lengths by Miss Sky Warrior, in the Grade 3 Tempted at Aqueduct on Nov. 5.

Truge lost considerable ground while rallying from last before falling a neck shy of Who’s the Lady in the pair’s previous encounter. She had finished a well-beaten third behind that same rival as a 4-5 favorite under similar conditions four weeks ago.