Peter D provided Andry Blanco the first stakes win of his brief training career in Saturday's $60,000 Journeyman Stud Juvenile, scoring a 1 ½-length length victory over the Tapeta racing surface at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The Journeyman Stud Juvenile, a mile-and-70-yard stakes for Florida-bred 2-year-olds on Tapeta, kicked off the stakes action on Saturday's 10-race program that also featured the $60,000 Khozan Juvenile Fillies Sprint, a six-furlong stakes for Florida-bred 2-year-old fillies, and the $60,000 Miami Beach, a mile overnight handicap for 3-year-olds and up.
Peter D, a son of He's Had Enough who is also owned by Blanco, saved ground into the stretch before overtaking pacesetter Mr. Rum Runner and drawing away to a comfortable victory in his first race around two turns and over an all-weather surface.
“A friend of mine offered him to me. The horse breezed pretty well over the Tapeta at OBS. He showed me the horse and I liked him and put an offer in and bought him,” Blanco said.
Peter D ($11) won at first asking in a $25,000 maiden claiming race over Delaware Park's main track Aug. 26, before finishing an even-fifth in the five-furlong Hollywood Beach on turf at Gulfstream last time out. The Florida-bred gelding ran a mile and 70 yards in 1:44.67 under Leonel Reyes to break through with a stakes victory Saturday. Mr. Rum Runner, a maiden with two in-the-money finishes going into his first race on Tapeta, held second, 2 ½ lengths ahead of C My Meister, the 2-1 favorite in a field of eight.
Peter D was Blanco's fourth winner from the 40 starters he has saddled since launching his training career last year.
The 40-year-old Blanco arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela in 2003. He rode 49 winners from 381 mounts during a career that included a seven-year break between 2005 and 2013.
“I've been breaking babies at OBS and I've been pinhooking. I'm still doing it,” said Blanco, who is currently training a stable of four. “I gallop. I break my horses. I do everything with the horses.”
In the Khozan Juvenile Fillies Sprint, Palm Beach Racing Partnership's She's So Beautiful ($12.20) wore down favored Sea Art with a determined stretch drive to prevail by a neck.
The Carlos David-trained daughter of Air Force Blue, who had won two of four starts going into Saturday's race, stalked the pace while racing three-wide before responding to Samy Camacho's urging in the stretch to win her stakes debut. She's So Beautiful ran seven furlongs in 1:25.28.
Sea Art held second under Emisael Jaramillo, a neck ahead of late-closing Demurely, who was ridden by Luca Panici.
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