Trainer Alfredo Velazquez comes to Florida to stay

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic on racing schedules around the country have brought some new faces down to South Florida for the summer. The latest is trainer Alfredo Velazquez, who shipped seven horses into Gulfstream Park this past week, including He’s Incredible, one of nine entered in Wednesday’s $47,000 main event, carded under optional-claiming conditions for Florida breds at five furlongs on the turf.

The feature goes as the ninth of 10 races Wednesday and will be the penultimate leg of a Rainbow 6 sequence that offers a $1.95 million-guaranteed jackpot. First post time throughout the remainder of the meet, which ends June 30, is noon Eastern.

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Velazquez has been a mainstay at Parx Racing for the past two decades. But the uncertainty of the racing schedule at his home base and his friendship with Mike Lakow, Gulfstream’s vice president of racing operations, were among the reasons that prompted Velazquez to head south.

“I’m 75 years old and cannot handle the cold too much anymore,” Velazquez said. “And who knows when Parx is going to get back racing again? I’ve been friends with Mike Lakow since back in New York in the 1980s. He’s a great guy, and when I heard he was coming here I got in touch with him and asked if he could find a place for me.”

Velazquez has won 1,134 races during his training career. He is best known for two of those victories, Grade 1 wins in the Vosburgh and Cigar Mile during the fall of 2014 with Private Zone. Velazquez, who trained Private Zone for only three races, said those are his only graded wins.

Velazquez said he plans to remain at Gulfstream Park on a year-round basis with a moderate-sized stable.

“At my age, I can’t manage too many more than that, although maybe over the winter some friends up north will send me a few of their better horses for the big meet,” Velazquez said.

If Wednesday’s headliner goes as scheduled, it will mark only the second time He’s Incredible will have run on turf in 16 career starts. Velazquez claimed He’s Incredible for $10,000 out of a maiden race at Parx in June 2019.

“When I claimed him, his best number at that point was on the grass,” Velazquez said.

“I think he can run on anything – it really shouldn’t matter to him.”

With an 80 percent chance of rain in the forecast for Wednesday, I’m Incredible would likely become more highly regarded by the bettors should the race be switched to the dirt. A change in surface also would obviously favor main-track-only entrant Take Charge Dude, who is coming off a pair of second-place finishes as the 4-5 favorite and faces statebreds for the first time this season.

Should the rain hold off and the race goes as scheduled on the grass, True Heiress, coming off a 1 1/2-length victory against open $16,000 claiming company four weeks earlier, and Cryogenic, a winner under similar conditions here in January, would be among the ones to beat.