As usual, Performer will be heavily bet in the Gulfstream Mile

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Performer performs. More to the point, he grinds it out, digs in, and for the most part, wins.

With six victories from eight career starts, Performer once again will take center stage as a fan favorite on another huge Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The 5-year-old Phipps Stable homebred will be a prohibitive choice in the Grade 2, $200,000 Gulfstream Park Mile, a race that follows his neck triumph in the Fred W. Hooper on the Jan. 23 Pegasus World Cup card.

Seven other older horses are entered against Performer in the Gulfstream Mile, a one-turn race that goes at 3:27 p.m. Eastern as the ninth of 14 races on Fountain of Youth Day. Performer has been ridden by Joel Rosario in all but his first start, but with Rosario active instead Saturday at Oaklawn Park, the mount goes to Jose Ortiz, who will be aboard from post 4.

Performer has done little wrong in a career typically well-managed by his Hall of Fame trainer, Shug McGaughey. After finishing third in his only start at 2, the son of Speightstown reeled off a five-race win streak, including one stakes, the Grade 3 Discovery at Aqueduct, a November 2019 race in which he earned a career-high 102 Beyer Speed Figure.

The streak was snapped when Performer was third as a 4-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile last December, but he came through in the Hooper, again at odds-on, proving his adaptable running style is useful under most any circumstance. He can be on or near the lead but has evolved into a stalking type with a potent kick.

Performer “gutted it out pretty good” in the Hooper, McGaughey said. “He’s come back to train really well, and although I would like to stretch him out a little bit farther as the year goes on, this did seem like a good spot. Hopefully, we can build on this.”

The chief threats to Performer are Tax, Eye of a Jedi, Fearless, and Phat Man.

Tax (post 2, Junior Alvarado), on the brink of surpassing the $1 million earnings mark, will be looking to rebound off a disappointing 10th-place finish in the Pegasus – if, in fact, he actually starts. The 5-year-old gelding “is training unbelievably, but I’m not sure I want to go a flat mile,” trainer Danny Gargan said. The 1 1/16-mile Challenger next Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs would be a logical alternate, he added.

Eye of a Jedi (post 3, Marcos Meneses), a longtime local mainstay for owner-trainer Steve Budhoo, battled Performer to the bitter end of the Hooper before settling for second at 13-1. The 6-year-old gelding has never been in sharper form, having finished first or second in each of his last four starts.

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“He’s a pretty darn good horse,” McGaughey noted.

Fearless (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.) will be returning from an eight-month layoff for Todd Pletcher, having finished sixth in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs last June in his most recent public appearance. The 5-year-old gelding has been sent through nine timed works, nearly all of them bullets, since late December.

“He’s trained really well and we know he likes the Gulfstream surface,” said Pletcher, referring to how Fearless opened his career with back-to-back wins here last winter.

Phat Man (post 1, Paco Lopez), a winner of the 2020 Hooper with a 101 Beyer, was the disappointment of the 2021 running, flattening out as the 3-1 second choice to finish fifth. Kent Sweezey trains the 7-year-old gelding for the partnership of Marianne Stribling, Force Five Racing, and Two Rivers Racing Stable.

Rounding out the lineup are Avant Garde, Wind of Change, and Summer Kid.

The Gulfstream Mile was first run in 1946 as the Gulfstream Park Handicap, eventually being cut back from its original 1 1/4-mile distance to a mile when undergoing a name change in 2009. McGaughey has won it twice, with Jackpot (2004) and Honor Code (2015).

Pletcher has won the Gulfstream Mile a record five times, with Harlington (2006), Discreet Dancer (2013), Palace Malice (2014), Blofeld (2016), and Prince Lucky (2019). The 2020 winner was Mr Freeze, with Phat Man finishing second.