Woodbine Turf Sprint Series back after cancellation
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Gun Runner gelding Arms will race on turf for the first time in Friday’s second leg of the Woodbine Turf Sprint Series, a $25,000 starter allowance/$40,000 claimer. The six-furlong main course event was rescheduled from last Friday, a card that was canceled due to excessive heat.
Trained by Mark Casse for Quintessential Racing Florida, Arms graduated over $25,000 maidens second time out on the Tapeta at Gulfstream Park on May 7. Moving out an eighth of a mile to 6 1/2 furlongs here June 25, the 4-year-old rallied four wide to win a hybrid Tapeta race for nonwinners-of-two allowance types and $50,000 claiming 3-year-olds.
Gun Runner has produced mostly dirt runners, with just 6 percent winners in turf sprints. Arms’s dam, Good Strike, is a half-sister to Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf victor Hit It a Bomb and the successful turf miler Border Town.
With Declan Carroll aboard, Arms will line up against the Marty Drexler-trained duo of Emicrack and Cotton, along with five others.
Exiting a two-month break July 6, Emicrack drifted out late and narrowly lost the opening leg of the series, a five-furlong inner turf dash. Sahin Civaci retains the mount on the win-shy veteran.
Emicrack is making his second start off a $25,000 claim by last year’s Sovereign Award-winning owner Bruno Schickedanz. Drexler has a 22 percent strike rate second time off a claim during the past 2 1/2 years with a return on investment of $1.65.
Cotton, the 126-pound highweight under Rafael Hernandez, is aiming for his fourth win in a row. He notched a $25,000 starter handicap on the Tapeta track April 29 and then doubled up in a first-level allowance/$32,000 event on the main turf, beating next-out winner Niagara Skyline. Cotton cleared the second allowance category most recently on Tapeta in a conditioned contest with a $50,000 claiming option, earning his second straight 93 Beyer.
Three horses were entered for $40,000 claiming – Ready for a Fight, Red River Rebel, and Romantic Gamble.
Ready for a Fight was claimed from Casse for $50,000 when winning his first start of the meet on the Tapeta, a surface over which he has missed the board in his last two outings. He finished seventh the only time he competed on the grass, which was early in his career at Santa Anita.
Red River Rebel won an Ontario-sired stakes at 2 and 3, but the 5-year-old has been in a tailspin since winning a conditioned allowance in October. He was fifth in the opening leg of this series, his fourth straight lackluster performance.
Romantic Gamble did the bulk of his damage on dirt during the winter at Penn National and Aqueduct, where he won a $10,000 starter with a 94 Beyer in March.
Rounding out the ninth-race field are Jazz Hands and Happymac, who is adding blinkers.
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