Williams finds Strike Hard can still fight without switch

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It might have been a surprise to many that Strike Hard went postward the favorite, at 7-5, over the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained pair of A. P.’s Secret and Skippylongstocking in last Sunday’s allowance feature. But the public got it right, with Strike Hard rallying to a convincing four-length victory over A. P.’s Secret, a result which didn’t surprise the promising 2-year-old’s trainer, Matthew Williams, in the least.

“Subjectively, I thought [Strike Hard] was the best horse in the race,” said Williams, whose eight-horse stable also includes the Grade 3-placed filly Dream Marie. “He finished second to a very good horse of Saffie Joseph’s, White Abarrio, in his previous start, having his hand forced early, moving sooner than he’d like, and chase the winner all the way.”

White Abarrio came back to flatter that effort in his next start, finishing third in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs.

Williams put blinkers on Strike Hard for the first time last Sunday, and the son of Flashback rated early under jockey Junior Alvarado before moving to close contention three wide into the stretch, then drawing off from the Joseph duo with complete authority through the final sixteenth.

“He wasn’t switching leads in his races, but he does switch in the morning, so I thought maybe seeing the crowd had something to do with that,” Williams explained. “But he didn’t change leads again, even with the blinkers, the other day. But if he’s comfortable doing that and giving us his best, we’re not going to fight him.”

Williams, a native of Jamaica, took out his U.S. trainer’s license for the first time during the fall of 2018 and did not win his first race until a year later. Dream Marie gave him his first Grade 1 starter when finishing ninth in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks and first stakes victory after capturing the Obeah this summer at Delaware Park. She finished second behind the odds-on Letruska in the Grade 3 Rampart here a year ago and will come back as one of the contenders in the same race next weekend.

“Right now we’re looking down the road at the Florida Derby and will work backwards from there when choosing Strike Hard’s upcoming schedule,” said Williams, who mentioned the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on New Year’s Day as a possible option for his next start.