Photo: NYRA
Recent allowance winner Orb will likely run in next Saturday’s $400,000
Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream Park, providing
that he pleases trainer Shug McGaughey in a workout scheduled for
Monday.
“I’m looking towards it. I’m going to work him on Monday and make up
my mind,” McGaughey said. “I’m leaning that way, because there’s
nowhere else to run him.”
The homebred colt of Stuart Janney III and the Phipps Stable, who
broke his maiden at Aqueduct in his fourth lifetime start on Nov. 24,
came right back to capture a 1 1/8-mile entry-level allowance at
Gulfstream on Jan. 26 despite encountering traffic in the first turn.
“When I came down here after he broke his maiden, I thought it was a
deal where I’d get to run him a couple times and then when we got him
back to New York and we’d run him over the bigger track – and that’d be
his gig,” McGaughey said. “He was a surprise the other day, but he was
training awfully well for it.”
Assuming all goes well in Monday’s workout, the son of Malibu Moon
will clash with undefeated Violence in the Fountain of Youth. Since
breaking his maiden in his debut at Saratoga on Aug. 18, the Todd
Pletcher-trained son of Medaglia d’Oro won the Nashua (G2) at Aqueduct
and the CashCall Futurity (G1) at Hollywood Park. It won’t be the first
meeting between the two colts, however. Orb also debuted at Saratoga on
Aug. 18, closing with a rush to finish third, just 1 ¼ lengths behind
Violence, after getting away last from the rail post position in the
seven-furlong race.
Next Saturday, McGaughey is also scheduled to saddle Data Link for a
start in the $150,000 Canadian Turf (G3) at Gulfstream. The 5-year-old
son of War Front concluded a most productive 2012 season with a 2 ¼
-length victory in the Citation (G2) at Hollywood Park in November.
Data Link won back-to-back allowance races at Gulfstream in 2011
before being sidelined for eight months. After winning a Gulfstream
allowance in December 2011, he finished third in the Canadian Turf last
March before becoming a Grade 1 stakes winner in the Maker’s Mile (G1)
at Keeneland.
“He’s a good horse. He hurt himself down here as a 3-year-old, so he
was set back,” McGaughey said. “When he was ridden right last year, he
always ran good.”
McGaughey also reported that Point of Entry, who defeated 2011
Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in the Gulfstream Park Turf
Handicap (G1) on Feb. 9, has come out of his impressive score in good
order and will likely return in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G1)
at Churchill Downs on May 4.