Wolfson pair, Legal Laura top probables for Grade 3 Rampart

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Traditionally a mid-winter fixture on the local stakes schedule, the Grade 3 Rampart has found itself a new home on the Gulfstream Park calendar. It’s now the first graded stakes during the 2015-16 Championship Meet and will be contested for the 36th time here next Saturday.

The Rampart is one of four stakes on a card that also includes the Harlan’s Holiday, South Beach, and El Prado. The Harlan’s Holiday serves as a prep for both the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope on Jan. 9 and the Sunshine Millions Classic one week later.

Trainer Todd Pletcher won three straight editions of the one-mile Rampart –in 2011-12 with Awesome Maria and again in 2013 with Ciao Bella, all three odds-on favorites –but will not be represented this year. Marty Wolfson upset the Rampart earlier this year with 49-1 Gamay Noir and he will likely have two major players in the race on Saturday: Cali Star and Curlin’s Princess.

Trainer Kathleen O’Connell will counter the Wolfson duo with Legal Laura, winner of the Sunshine Millions Distaff Preview at Gulfstream Park West in her most recent start. Legal Laura, a homebred daughter of Wildcat Heir owned by Gil Campbell, will be making her first start over the local strip.

“She finally had some racing luck last time, was able to get a good trip,” said O’Connell. “She should have won at Keeneland in her previous start but really had a rough trip. She had an inside post that day, and it was just the way the race unfolded. Sometimes you’re just a victim.”

Pletcher trains six of the 20 horses nominated to the 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday, and said Friday he expects to run the multiple Grade 2 winner Madefromlucky, who is coming off a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct. Others likely to start in the Harlan’s Holiday, according to stakes coordinator Mike Costanzo, include Valid, Sr. Quisqueyano, Lynx, Just Call Kenny, Encryption, and Ami’s Holiday.

Sr. Quisqueyano has not started since May, and trainer Peter Walder says he’s using the Harlan’s Holiday as a prep for the Sunshine Millions Classic. Sr. Quisqueyano upset the Sunshine Classic at 20-1 last winter.

Valid hasn’t started since his fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Valid won a pair of graded stakes this season, including the Grade 3 Fred Hooper here in February.

Brother Bobo tepid choice

Brother Bobo may be the slight favorite in a well-matched field of 10 entered in Sunday’s $35,000 feature, a first-level optional $12,500 claimer for Florida-breds going six furlongs.

Brother Bobo is coming off a third-place finish against entry-level allowance company at Penn National. Brother Bobo was beaten a neck in the Buffalo Man at Gulfstream Park West at 2.

Other key contenders include Holy Highway, Sonofaderbywinner, and the recently claimed Rasta Rant.

Remembering Arnold Winick

Todd Pletcher will be seeking his 13th straight leading trainer title here this winter. But long before Pletcher began his dominance of the local standings, there was Arnold Winick, who captured 12 Gulfstream Park titles in 14 years from 1959 through 1973. Winick was the dominant force throughout south Florida during that period and was among the first trainers to split his stable into several divisions, stabling horses at Gulfstream, Hialeah, and Tropical Park while basing his operation out of the Delray Training Center in Delray Beach, now known as Palm Beach Downs, where Pletcher has the bulk of his stable bedded down this winter.

Winick won more than 30 training titles during his career, amassed more than 1,700 victories, and was also among the first horsemen to import horses from South America. He retired at the height of his career in the mid-70s, turning the reins over to his nephew Neal Winick and son Randy. Winick died in 1995 at 67.

“Arnold was definitely an innovator and way ahead of his time,” said Joe Petrucione, who began as a groom and eventually became Winick’s top assistant at Hialeah through the mid-70’s. “He used to have his own helicopter and would fly between the farm and the three Florida tracks to oversee his operation. He was also the first trainer to purchase and import horses from South America.”