Warrior's Pride lands Zapico first win since 2020 in Umphrey Sprint
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Warrior‘s Pride showed both his durability and versatility Sunday at Gulfstream Park when rallying to a two-length victory in the Bob Umphrey Sprint. The speedster had captured the 2021 version of the race on grass before coming back to win the summer fixture, part of Gulfstream’s Summit of Speed weekend, over the Tapeta course two years later.
Warrior’s Pride was trained by Antonio Cioffi when he led gate to wire before holding on for a hard-fought neck decision to win what was then known as the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint two years ago. He was making just his third start under the guidance of owner-trainer Ruben Sierra when rallying from just off the pace before edging away to an even easier victory in this year’s Umphrey. He was competing for just the second time in his career over a synthetic surface last weekend.
The Umphrey marked the first time Warrior’s Pride, who came into the race with five victories in 18 lifetime starts, had ever won a race when not on the lead at every call. It also gave jockey Silvia Zapico, who had accepted only eight mounts over the previous three seasons, the first stakes win of her riding career and first victory of any kind since 2020.
“It feels great,” Zapico told the Gulfstream Park publicity department immediately after the Umphrey Sprint. “I started studying physical therapy and just finished in November. So I said, ‘Let’s take a break and catch up with the horses again.’ I’ve been working at a clinic here in Hallandale Beach and I’m trying to make up my mind whether to change from the racing mode to the physical therapy mode.”
Zapico allowed Warrior’s Pride who, as usual, had been working bullets in the morning prepping for the race, to settle off the early pace of Hope in Him for the opening half-mile of the 5 1/2-furlong Umphrey Sprint. Warrior’s Pride readily overtook the tiring leader in early stretch, edged clear, and was never seriously menaced thereafter.
”We knew [Hope in Him] would have the speed. The plan was to follow him,” said Zapico. “As soon as I asked him he changed into another gear.”
Warrior’s Pride, a 5-year-old homebred son of Poseidon’s Warrior owned by Sierra’s Just for Fun Stable, earned an additional $25,000 bonus offered by the FTBOA to a Florida-bred winner of the race. Sierra is best known nationally for having owned and bred Decisive Moment, who prompted the early pace before finishing 14th behind Animal Kingdom in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.
The Skipper Too takes Kaplan
The Umphrey wasn’t the only race on Sunday named after a very popular figure on the South Florida racing scene. Earlier on the card, The Skipper Too registered a mild upset over the odds-on Steal Sunshine to capture the $60,000 Bill Kaplan Memorial, an overnight handicap decided at 1 1/16 miles.
Kaplan, who passed away suddenly less than two months ago, trained 2011 champion sprinter and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Musical Romance.
The victory was the second in a row for The Skipper Too, an Arindel homebred trained by Juan Alvarado.
“He’s been a hard-trying horse since he was a 2-year-old and he just keeps getting better and better,” said Arindel’s stable manager Brian Cohen. “We think he really wants to stretch out.”
Cohen said the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup on July 22, on the Haskell Invitational undercard, could be a possible target for The Skipper Too’s next start.
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