St. George Stable LLC's Mounsieur Coco cavorted over Gulfstream Park's Tapeta Course Saturday while capturing the $65,000 Proud Man Stakes, providing trainer Fausto Gutierrez with a lot of hope for the 2-year-old son of Bolt d'Oro's future.
“I think we need to go north and try to get to the Breeders' Cup,” Gutierrez said. “I want to go to the turf.”
Mounsieur Coco stalked pacesetter J R's Pride during fractions of 21.95 and 45.84 seconds before drawing away to win impressively by 4 ½ lengths under Miguel Vasquez, completing 5 ½ furlongs on the all-weather surface in 1:04.16. The 1-2 favorite, who finished fourth on dirt after a troubled start in his July 16 debut, graduated by 6 ½ length in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight on Tapeta with the addition of blinkers just eight days prior to Sunday's stakes victory.
“He was the best of the 2-year-olds we had. He had very good workouts. He is a very consistent horse,” Gutierrez said. “The first race, he was surprised at the start without blinkers. Now the horse has experience. He relaxed very nice.”
Mounsieur Coco's St. George Stable LLC's stablemate Mariachi Crush closed late to finish second, a head in front of Cheerful Charlie.
Gutierrez reported that Letruska, St. George Stable LLC's 2021 champion older female, exited her third-place finish in Saturday's Personal Ensign (G1) at Saratoga in good order. The 6-year-old daughter of Super Saver made her first start in the U. S. at Gulfstream, beating the boys in the 2019 Copa Invitational del Caribe at 1 ¼ miles.
Magic Cap Stable's Twelve Volt Man provided leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. with his third victory on Sunday's card while denying Gutierrez a sweep of the co-features by edging favored Chocolate Bar by a half-length in the $55,000 Miami Shores.
Twelve Volt Man ($15.20) settled in mid-pack for the first half-mile of the 1 1/16-mile overnight handicap before entering contention with a wide sweep on the turn into the homestretch and overtaking Chocolate Bar, the 8-5 favorite who had saved ground closely stalking the pace before taking the lead at the top of the stretch.
Twelve Volt Man, who ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.15 under Edwin Gonzalez, was making his first start since finishing fourth in the Ghostzapper (G3) on the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) undercard April 2.
Chocolate Bar finished 3 ¾ lengths ahead of I'm a G Six.
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