Toxic Gray back at home for the winter

Coming out of a loss in a maiden $40,000 claiming race at Tampa in December 2022, it appeared a bit fluky when Toxic Gray upset the heavily favored first-time starter Everso Mischievous in a maiden race at Aqueduct in February 2023.

Toxic Gray took a circuitous route back to Aqueduct but recent results indicate he could have a bright future here this winter.

Toxic Gray, a 4-year-old son of Verrazano trained by Mike Miceli, won a first-level allowance race by 3 1/2 lengths on Nov. 16, earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. That came one race after he was beaten by the multiple stakes winner El Grande O in the same condition.

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Toxic Gray was away from the races 13 months due to a physical issue that required time to heal. After making three starts at Gulfstream Park for Eddie Plesa in the first half of 2024, he returned to Miceli. One poor race on dirt was followed by a turf experiment that didn’t work before Miceli returned him to sprinting at Aqueduct.

“He didn’t like the turf and he trained good afterward, so we ran him back and he ran a bang-up second to El Grande O,” Miceli said, referring to the Oct. 24 race. “I was going to give him a little more time, but he was doing so good I thought we might as well run. We put him in and he won that race pretty handily.”

With two big-figured races in 23 days, Miceli said he wasn’t in a hurry to run Toxic Gray back in next weekend’s Fall Highweight. Miceli said he would look for a second-level allowance race for Toxic Gray but added if the $150,000 Gravesend on Dec. 28 “came up light that’s something we can think of.”

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