Gary and Mary West’s Major Gain breezed six furlongs
in 1:14.40 at Gulfstream Park Sunday morning in a move that left his
trainer Wayne Catalano pondering a quick trip to his native New Orleans
to saddle that son of More Than Ready at Fair Grounds in Saturday’s Grade
III Lecomte Stakes.
“He worked real good this morning,” said Catalano, speaking
from South Florida
shortly after Sunday’s move. “I got him going five-eighths in a minute flat and
that’s about what I wanted to see. Right now I’m leaning toward bringing him
over there. Now I’ve got to start looking around for a jockey.”
Major Gain would be a major addition to this year’s
Lecomte, one of six stakes races slated for this Saturday’s Road to the
Derby Kickoff Day Presented by Hotel Monteleone. The homebred was clearly
best when he broke his maiden by winning last fall’s Grade III
Arlington-Washington Futurity in Chicago, but then finished fifth in the Grade
I Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October after being bumped solidly at
the half-mile pole. The colt wrapped up his juvenile campaign by finishing
third, beaten only a half-length for all of it, in Churchill’s Grade II
Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Nov. 27 despite racing four wide. The Jockey
Club Stakes was only the fourth start of his career and his first and only trip
over a traditional dirt surface.
As a conditioner, Catalano has dominated the Arlington
standings over the last decade, and also has saddled the winner of the last two
Arlington-Washington Futurities. Additionally, he is remembered locally for
saddling Darrell and Evelyn Yates’ Crypto Star to win the 1997 Louisiana Derby
at Fair Grounds.