HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The inclination is to scoff and ridicule. Go ahead, says Dale Romans. Racing fans have done it before.
“Wayne Lukas told me he’s made millions of dollars running horses where people said they didn’t belong,” said Romans, who will saddle the longshot Prayer for Relief for the $12 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.
No trainer should have to endure what Terri Pompay went through last Saturday at Gulfstream.
Lumumba, a promising 3-year-old making his career debut for Pompay, was defeated in a very tight photo in the fifth race, and then Nauset Beach was nipped in virtually identical fashion in the last race of the day, the $200,000 Sunshine Millions Classic.
No fewer than six undercard stakes are on tap for Saturday at Gulfstream Park in creating a suitable buildup to the inaugural Pegasus World Cup. The richest of those supporting events is the $400,000 Poseidon, which also is being run for the first time.
The Poseidon, like the Pegasus, is for older horses at 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Entries were to be drawn Monday afternoon, with the confirmed starters being Imperative, Cherry Wine, and Todd Pletcher’s Stanford and Madefromlucky.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Rohan Crichton said he is leaning toward running The Money Monster in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 4 following the undefeated colt’s victory last Saturday in the $53,500 Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
An important first-level allowance race for the Mark Casse barn comes Friday at Fair Grounds, where the 3-year-old filly Valadorna makes her first start of 2017. But Casse’s string also has a live runner in Thursday’s featured fourth race, another first-level allowance.
Farrell came out of her win Saturday in the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes in good order and is on course to make the second start of her 3-year-old campaign here Feb. 25 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes.
“She looks good. She ate real well, doesn’t seem knocked out or anything,” trainer Wayne Catalano said Sunday morning.
Farrell won the Silverbulletday, her first start since a open-lengths win Nov. 26 in the Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs, by 2 3/4 lengths. She ran a mile and 70 yards in 1:44.01 and got a 74 Beyer Speed Figure, down from her 80 in the Golden Rod.
NEW ORLEANS – Guest Suite did not appear to maximally extend himself winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and his trainer, Neil Howard, saw nothing to contradict that impression Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Guest Suite had cleaned his feed tub and was acting like his typically energetic self on Sunday. Nearly all horses that race don’t train the following day, and Guest Suite was no exception Sunday, but Howard doesn’t plan to give Guest Suite many more days off.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Eragon, the Argentinian-bred multiple Group 1 winner who will represent James McIngvale in the Pegasus World Cup next Saturday, turned in his final major prep for the race by going five furlongs in 1:02.34 with Edgar Prado aboard Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Chad Brown has circled the first Saturday in March as the likely time to get Practical Joke under way for his pre-Derby campaign.
Brown Sunday morning said the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, or the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct -- both on March 4, both at 1 1/16 miles -- are the races under consideration for Practical Joke’s first start since he finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
“Those are the two we’ve zeroed in on,” Brown said.
The undefeated McCraken, who along with Classic Empire is one of the top Kentucky Derby prospects based in South Florida this winter, is scheduled to make his first start at age 3 in the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11, trainer Ian Wilkes said Sunday morning.
Wilkes said he wants to start off at Tampa because he doesn’t want to “take him out of his game” by running McCraken at Gulfstream over a surface that might not be as conducive to his style.
