Veteran
horseman Dale Romans will not often be found running a maiden in a Graded
stakes with a six-figure purse, but will do just that Saturday when he sends
out Donegal Racing’s 3-year-old Paddy O’Prado in the $150,000 Palm Beach Stakes
(G3) at Gulfstream Park.
“He is
very talented. I never expected him to be a maiden this long,” said Romans
Thursday morning. “He’s had several troubled trips. I like the distance of the
stakes race, the maiden race that day (Saturday) is a mile-and-a-sixteenth and
he likes longer and the stakes is a mile-and-an-eighth.”
A
roan/gray colt by El Prado purchased for $105,000 at the Keeneland September
yearling sales, Paddy O’Prado drew post one in the field of nine. The colt will
be ridden by jockey Jesus Castanon as he makes his fifth career start and
second this year after a third-place finish in a maiden special test over the
Gulfstream course on Feb. 10, his first start since early September at Saratoga.
Romans’
optimism about Paddy O’Prado can be attributed in part to the promise he showed
in two turf starts at Saratoga last summer and the company he kept in those
races. After a dull try sprinting on a ‘sloppy’ track at Churchill Downs in his
career debut on July 4, he lost a neck decision to Dean’s Kitten in a maiden
special test at the Spa on Aug. 5 and finished an even third in the With
Anticipation Stakes (G3) on Sept. 4.
Ken and
Sarah Ramsey’s Dean’s Kitten will be among Paddy O’Prado’s rivals in the Palm
Beach, but he finished fourth
when they met previously in the With Anticipation. Dean’s Kitten would go on to
win the Vision Stakes at Belmont Park and finish sixth in the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Turf (G2) at Santa Anita in early November when beaten less than three
lengths for it all.
The With
Anticipation was won by Wertheimer et Frere’s Interactif, who would likely have
been the favorite in the Palm Beach had he be entered. After the With
Anticipation, Interactif went on to finish a game third in the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Turf, beaten less than a length for it all, and lost a photo decision
last out in the Hallandale Beach Stakes here on Feb. 7 as the favorite to Bim
Bam, the favorite in the Palm Beach.
South Florida Stakes Runners ‘On
the Road’ This Weekend
A number
of stakes runners based in South
Florida who got their early season training here will
be in action at tracks coast-to-coast this weekend. Another is making the
second start of a promising career in Dubai
Friday evening after an auspicious debut at Gulfstream
Park
on opening day, Jan. 3.
Three-year-old
Tahitian Warrior was very impressive winning his six-furlong career debut at
Gulfstream by 4 ¾ lengths for owner Frank Calabrese and trainer Danny Miller in
1:09 4/5 and was sold privately not long after to the Maktoum family’s
Godolphin enterprise. He was later shipped to Dubai.
The
roan/gray gelding by Maria’s Mon is entered to make his second start Friday in
a $150,000 allowance race going one mile on turf at the new Meydan Race Course
in Dubai for Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor with Frankie Dettori named to
ride in a race that could earn him a chance in the $2 million UAE Derby (G2) on
Dubai World Cup Day, Mar. 27.
Headed
in the opposite direction to run this weekend are P.A.R.J. Stable’s 6-year-old
gelding Delightful Kiss to Santa Anita to run in the $750,000 Santa Anita
Handicap (G1) and Ogden Phipps’s 4-year-old Gone Astray to Arkansas for the
$150,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) at Oaklawn Park.
Delightful
Kiss is a roan/gray son of Kissin Kris trained by Pete Anderson who finished
third last out behind Quality
Road in the Donn
Handicap (G1) at Gulfstream on Feb. 6. Delightful Kiss ran a close-up fourth in
the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Santa Anita in the fall of 2008. Jockey Juan
Leyva will also make the trip for the mount
Saturday.
Gulfstream-based
jockey Eddie Castro travels for the mount on Gone Astray for trainer Shug
McGaughey as the homebred son of Dixie Union makes his first start since
finishing third as the favorite in the Discovery Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct on
Nov. 21. Gone Astray trained for his return at Payson
Park
and scored his biggest victory in the Pennsylvania Derby (G2) at Philadelphia
Park
in early September.
Shipping
north to Aqueduct to run Saturday in the $100,000 Toboggan Handicap (G3) is
Homewrecker Stable and Avalon Farm’s 4-year-old Custom for Carlos, the likely
favorite after winning the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream
for trainer Eddie Kenneally on Jan. 9.
Another
Gulfstream winner from early in the meet in action Saturday at Aqueduct is
Starlight Partners’ 3-year-old Three Day Rush in the $250,000 Gotham Stakes
(G3) for trainer Todd Pletcher. The son of Starlight’s 2002 Florida Derby (G1)
winner Harlan’s Holiday
won a six-furlong allowance at Gulfstream on Jan. 9. In one start since then he
finished a close-up third in the Whirlaway Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 6.
Palm Beach
2009 Rematch in Saturday Allowance
The 24th
edition of the $150,000 Palm Beach Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles
on turf highlights Saturday’s card at Gulfstream
Park,
and by coincidence the one-two finishers from last year’s 23rd running have
been entered to make their first start of 2010 in the eighth race allowance in
the race before the Palm
Beach.
G. Watts
Humphrey, Jr.’s El Crespo won the Palm
Beach under jockey Javier Castellano
for trainer Rusty Arnold by a length over Dogwood Stable’s Lime Rickey, trained
by Frank Alexander. A son of A.P. Indy, El Crespo failed to win in seven Graded
stakes starts since then, but placed in three of them.
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