Photo: MEC
The $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs
on Saturday will be the high point of racing action as the 2012-13
Gulfstream Park season hits the mid-point. The $75,000 Gulfstream Park
Turf Sprint will be run the same afternoon at five furlongs.
Trainer Todd Pletcher sent out Thunder Mocassin to score in the
Hutcheson last year after a run of five straight victories in the race
from 2003-07. Pletcher has five nominated for the 61st renewel and is
expected to be represented by Perretti Racing Stable LLC’s Forty Tales.
A son of Tale of the Cat, Forty Tales has won both of his career
starts beginning with his debut at Aqueduct by 2 ¾ lengths on Nov. 24
and an ‘a other than’ allowance at Parx by 3 ¾ lengths on Jan. 5 before
shipping down to Palm Meadows for the rest of the winter.
Also expected in the Hutcheson line-up are Bruce Chandler, Robert
McKee and James Glavin’s Merit Man, Swifty Farms’ Pataky Kid, Joseph
Bucci’s Honorable Dillon. Herman Van Den Broeck’s Singanothersong, James
Covello and Newtown Anner Stud’s Falling Sky, Red and Black Stable’s
Weekend Hideaway and possibly Nancy and Richard Kaster’s Really Sharp.
Merit Man may rule the favorite for trainer Bob Hess, Jr. after a
game victory by three-quarters of a length in the six-furlong
Spectacular Bid Stakes here on New Year’s Day. The son of With
Distinction won his first two starts last year at Del Mar and Santa
Anita and suffered his only defeat when second by a nose as the favorite
in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.
Merit Man tuned up for the Hutcheson working five furlongs in 1:00 4/5 Sunday morning at Gulfstream