Zia Park: Cloud Harbor back home for Governor's Cup

Cloud Harbor was 20-1 when he won the $100,000 Gold Rush Futurity in August. He’ll be a much shorter price Tuesday at Zia Park in the $55,000 Governor’s Cup. Cloud Harbor should be favored in the six-furlong race for 2-year-olds that highlights the program in Hobbs, N.M.

The field of six includes Alsono, who began his career at Keeneland before winning his maiden last month at Zia.

Cloud Harbor has won 2 of 3 starts, including the Gold Rush at Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 18. He stalked and pounced for a one-length win over the field of 12, one start after taking a maiden special weight race at Ruidoso Downs. Cloud Harbor enters the Governor’s Cup off a sixth-place finish in the $75,000 Kip Deville at Remington Park on Sept. 29.

“We had to throw that last race out,” trainer Henry Dominguez said. “He came into a new area, was a little bit studdish, got real hot, had everything on his mind but running. He was not himself. He was acting like a young kid. He’s back home, back to his normal stuff, his familiar surroundings. We weren’t going to run him back this quick, but he didn’t exert himself in the race over there. It didn’t take anything out of him.”

Cloud Harbor won his debut in wire-to-wire fashion, then rallied in the Gold Rush. He covered six furlongs in 1:10.90 in the Colorado race and earned a 64 Beyer Speed Figure, the best mark in Tuesday’s field. He could get a tracking trip behind Alsono.

“He can sit right off the pace – that’s how he ran up there in Denver,” Dominguez said. “He sat off the pace, stalked, then he came on. I expect him to do the same thing here.”

Alfredo Juarez Jr. has the mount on Cloud Harbor, a son of Rockport Harbor purchased for $42,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s April auction of 2-year-olds in training. His winning dam, Fragrant Cloud, is a half-sister to Ninebanks, a Grade 2 winner of $757,243.

Cloud Harbor races for George E. Coleman, Jimmy M. Sanders, and Solitaire Stable.

◗ The Zia-based Wine Police, the winner of the $150,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup on Sept. 29, is eyeing the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint. “I think we’re leaning towards the Breeders’ Cup more,” Dominguez said Friday. The horse also had been under consideration for stakes in Louisiana and Pennsylvania.

◗ Zia on Saturday began a new entry schedule at the request of horsemen, said Fred Hutton, the track’s director of racing operations. Cards now will be drawn a week before race day, with entries taken Saturday for the Oct. 19 program.

◗ The $55,000 Permian Basin for 2-year-old fillies that was to be run at Zia on Sunday, then was brought back for Monday, did not fill, Hutton said.