Well Defined, Miles Ahead figure to battle it out in starter allowance
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are two allowance events on Friday’s nine-race card at Gulfstream Park, although the best race on the program is a seven-furlong starter-allowance dash that features a rematch between the graded stakes winner Well Defined and the former $12,500 claimer Miles Ahead.
Well Defined, winner of the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs two years ago, returns on relatively short rest off a decisive wire-to-wire 4 1/2-length victory in the Big Drama Stakes, for Florida-breds going seven furlongs on May 1. Well Defined, a son of With Distinction owned by his trainer, Kathleen O’Connell, earned a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure in the Big Drama.
The Big Drama was the fourth win in the last six starts for Well Defined, with the third of those victories coming at the direct expense of Miles Ahead under starter-allowance conditions here March 12. Well Defined went wire to wire and won by 1 1/2 lengths as a 12-1 outsider. His odds will be considerably lower when the pair meet again Friday.
“We gave him some needed time off last summer and then dropped him down to get his confidence back, and I think he’s as good as ever at the moment,” said O’Connell, just minutes after arriving back in South Florida following a trip from New Jersey to inspect the 22 horses she has bedded down at Monmouth Park. “He’s doing terrific out of his last race. I’m not concerned about bringing him back in three weeks. The only thing that worried me is that if he didn’t run in this spot, there probably wouldn’t have been another race for him for six weeks. I like the fact it’s the same distance as his last start, and it looks like we’ve got Miles Ahead to beat again.”
O’Connell is still trying to adjust to life without Calder Race Course – renamed Gulfstream Park West – having been stabled at the north Miami facility as a mainstay on the local circuit since 1990. The facility closed permanently in early April.
“It’s very difficult having to move out of Calder after being stabled there for 30 years,” said O’Connell, who has 35 horses at Gulfstream Park. “This is a new track we have to adjust to and learn to train on, which makes it kind of an unknown factor for now. We had a great comfort level at Calder and a lot of success, even after racing stopped over there on a regular basis the last six or seven years. It was like having somewhat of a private training center during that period, and was a great environment for the horses. I feel like I was thrown from the country and into New York City having to come over to a full barn area here.”
O’Connell also is worried about the New Jersey Racing Commission’s whip regulation in place for the upcoming Monmouth meet, which does not allow a jockey to use the whip except for safety reasons.
“There is a commission meeting today, and hopefully the whip issue will be resolved,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “I just don’t understand how a commission without a dog in the fight and no serious connection to the people involved can make a rule affecting everybody the way this one possibly might if it remains in place.”
As for Miles Ahead in Friday’s starter allowance, he bounced back from his second-place finish behind Well Defined two months ago to win an allowance race turning back to six furlongs on April 24. He matched his career-best 95 Beyer Figure.
Completing the field are Malibu Max, who brings a two-race winning streak into the race, the improving Honolulu Express, Legal Deal, Blessed Journey, and The Newfie Express.
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◗ The afternoon’s two allowance races are both carded at a mile on the main track, the first for statebred fillies and mares, the second for 3-year-olds. Each offers a purse of $47,000.
Tiz Possible Dear may be the one to beat in a wide-open fifth race, as she appears to be the controlling speed while in search of her 10th win. Hercules and Dropped Anchor, who finished first and second going a mile on March 18, are the key contenders in the eighth race. Hercules looks to extend a three-race win streak that dates back to Jan. 13.