HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Third as the favorite behind Tax in the 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday at Gulfstream last month, Phat Man will be on a slight turn-back Saturday as the defending champion in the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper, one of five graded stakes to be run in addition to the two Pegasus events. The Hooper is a one-turn mile.
On Sunday, Phat Man breezed three furlongs in 36 seconds at the Palm Meadows training center.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Zulu Alpha was something of an outsider last January in winning the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at 11-1, so Mike Maker is hoping history can repeat itself when the $1 million race is run Saturday at Gulfstream Park for the third time.
Maker will send out the pair of Cross Border and Aquaphobia in the 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf, which is expected to get a capacity field of 12 when entries are drawn here Wednesday. Both figure to be similar odds as Zulu Alpha was last year.
The four winners of the three stakes held Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs – the math is correct, given a dead heat for win in one of them – will eye loftier goals for their respective next starts, according to their connections.
Over the last year, Brad Cox has found far more triumph than disappointment on big race days. Take, for instance, the Breeders’ Cup, where he won four races with seven-figure purses over the course of the two-day meeting at Keeneland.
But Saturday at Fair Grounds didn’t go as well for Cox. Secret Message won the $100,000 Marie Krantz Memorial, and Cox knocked out a turf maiden win with the Juddmonte Farms homebred Fulsome, but odds-on Juddmonte favorites could not find the winner’s circle in the Silverbulletday and the Lecomte.
Chris Block didn’t bring Charlie’s Penny to Fair Grounds last fall looking to stretch the filly out. Things just turned in that direction, as a matter of course, and led to Charlie’s Penny winning the $150,000 Silverbulletday on Saturday.
Charlie’s Penny took command of the Silverbulletday in upper stretch and drew away to win by 3 1/4 lengths, running one mile, 70 yards in 1:43.80, which was good for an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.
Midnight Bourbon looked good Sunday following his Jan. 16 win in the Grade 2, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, and his connections think there’s reason to hope he can be even better in stakes races the next couple months at Fair Grounds.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Astute, one of the most-promising 2-year-old fillies on this circuit last fall, is back galloping and should have a work in coming days, according to her trainer, Richard Mandella.
“She’s been galloping real well,” Mandella said Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Concert Tour was a sharp debut winner on Friday for trainer Bob Baffert, who has had high hopes for the Street Sense colt.
“We expected something like that,” Baffert said Sunday. “He was training good at Del Mar, but then he had a slight setback. He was pretty ready for that race. He came out of it well.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hot Rod Charlie, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Rombauer, fifth in that race, both could make their 3-year-old debuts in the Grade 3, $100,000 Robert Lewis Stakes on Jan. 30, following good works Saturday.
Hot Rod Charlie, trained by Doug O’Neill, went six furlongs in 1:13.40. O’Neill has another promising 3-year-old in Wipe the Slate, a recent maiden winner who worked five furlongs Saturday in 1:00.60.
Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy, worked five furlongs in 1:01.60.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Michael McCarthy is hoping that Jan. 23 is Independence Day.
After a sharp six-furlong workout here at Santa Anita on Saturday, McCarthy on Sunday morning said Independence Hall was set to head to Florida to compete Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the Pegasus World Cup, a race McCarthy won two years ago with City of Light.
Independence Hall sped six furlongs in 1:12.60, the best time of eight at the distance. It was his second work since finishing fifth most recently in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
