Brendan Walsh | Horse Racing Free Tips

Extravagant Kid Back To Defend Title In Sunshine Sprint At Gulfstream

DAARS Inc.'s Extravagant Kid, one of the most accomplished turf sprinters in the country the past few years, will return to dirt Saturday, when the versatile 8-year-old gelding makes a title defense in the $75,000 Sunshine Sprint at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The Sunshine Sprint, a six-furlong dash for 4-year-olds and up, is one of four stakes for Florida-breds on Saturday's 12-race program with an 11:45 a.m. first-race post time. All four stakes will offer a $25,000 win-only bonus for Florida Sire Stakes-eligible starters.

Extravagant Kid, who was claimed by David Ross' DAARS Inc. and trainer Brendan Walsh for $75,000 out of a Jan. 18, 2017 optional claiming allowance score at Gulfstream, captured last year's Sunshine Sprint by 2 ¾ lengths.

“He's been a fantastic horse right from when we got him. He hasn't put a foot wrong at any point. His consistency speaks for itself. He was a great claim for Mr. (David) Ross,” Walsh said. “I was just looking at this form. It's unbelievable. He very, very rarely doesn't run up to par. I think there's only one or two days where we leave disappointed. He's been right there.”

Extravagant Kid, a Grade 1 stakes-placed son of Kiss the Kid, finished second back to back on turf in the Twin Spires Turf (G2) at Churchill Downs and the Woodford (G2) at Keeneland before finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1), in which he was beaten just over a length by victorious Glass Slippers, at Keeneland. He came back to finish a troubled second, beaten a head by Imprimis, in the Jan. 1 Janus, a five-furlong turf sprint, at Gulfstream. Last year, Extravagant Kid prepped for the Sunshine Sprint with a victory in the off-the-turf Janus.

“He won this race last year off a sharp race after winning the Janus, which we were just punched off in New Year's Day. I know we got beat in the Janus, but we weren't beaten that far. I hope we can follow up this year,” Walsh said. “The horse seems to have come out of the race good. He's a horse that when he's doing well, you run him, and he won't let you down.”

While Walsh stated a belief that Extravagant Kid is slightly better on turf, he hardly lacks confidence when the veteran campaigner goes from turf to dirt.

“He's been a pretty good dirt horse, as well. We went turf and Polytrack. It's kept him around. He won this race last year with a little bit in hand. He also won a pretty good race in March 2019. He beat Firenze Fire in a Florida-bred stake at Tampa,” Walsh said. “He works all the time on dirt. We don't work him much on grass.”

Tyler Gaffalione, who was aboard for his 2020 Sunshine Sprint win, has the call.

Live Oak Plantation's Souper Stonehenge will enter the Sunshine Sprint off a second-place finish in the Nov. 21 Kennedy Road (G2) over Woodbine's synthetic surface. The 5-year-old son of Speightstown finished 1 ¼ lengths behind stablemate Ride a Comet, who came back to win last weekend's Tropical Park Turf (G3) at Gulfstream.

“He's a truly nice horse. He's shown on occasions that he could be a really nice horse. He's had some issues with his air. He's had a surgery or two on it. Right now, he's doing really well and is training really well,” trainer Mark Casse said. “His last race was flattered by Ride a Comet's race the other day for sure.”

Souper Stonehenge broke his maiden over Gulfstream Park's main track March 23, 2019, winning a six-furlong maiden special weight event by 10 ¼ lengths.

“The only thing he hasn't show too much of a kindness for is turf, but in fairness to him, the last time I ran him on turf, it was his first start off a layoff,” Casse said.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez is scheduled to ride Souper Stonehenge for the first time Saturday.

My Purple Haze Stables LLC's Heiressall is scheduled to clash with males in the Sunshine Sprint. The multiple stakes-winning daughter of Wildcat Heir is coming off a 3 ¼-length victory over older fillies and mares in a Florida-bred stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Terri Pompay-trained Heiressall, who won the Sheer Drama Stakes in her most recent start at Gulfstream, will be ridden by Edgard Zayas.

Michele and Lawrence Sargent's Legal Deal and Tracy Pinchin's Jackson, and Eric J. Wirth's With Verve, who finished 1-2-3 in the Sunshine Sprint Preview at Gulfstream Park West, are slated to clash again Saturday.

Shadybrook Farm Inc.'s Cajun Brother, Santa Rosa Racing Stables' Inter Miami, and Jacks or Better Farm Inc.'s Old Time Revival round out the field.

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No Pegasus For Godolphin’s Fair Grounds-Based Maxfield, Mystic Guide

Neither of Godolphin's two Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup aspirants based at the Fair Grounds, Maxfield nor Mystic Guide, will make the Jan. 23 race at Gulfstream Park, reports the Daily Racing Form. Both colts came down with minor respiratory illnesses and missed enough training to take them out of Pegasus consideration.

The undefeated Grade 1-winner Maxfield, who returned off a seven-month layoff to win the Dec. 19 Tenacious Stakes at the Fair Grounds, returned to regular training on Monday. Trainer Brendan Walsh expects the 4-year-old to be ready for racing in early to mid-February.

“Some horse came down with something when the temperature dropped here,” Walsh told DRF. “The only remedy is to back off on them. He showed some early signs, so we backed off. It's curtailed any aspirations of going for a race like the Pegasus. The good news is he's fine.”

Mystic Guide, trained by Mike Stidham, finished second last out in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup behind Happy Saver. Stidham said the colt is still coughing, but is back to tack walking in the shed row and will likely be pointed to a stakes race at the Fair Grounds or at Oaklawn in the coming months.

Jerkens Marathon Asks Unique Question Of 11 Entrants Saturday At Gulfstream

Saturday's $75,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Gulfstream Park will be a journey into the unknown for the vast majority of its 11 entrants, who will be asked to run two miles for the first time in their lives.

The Jerkens, a two-mile turf marathon that honors the memory of the beloved Hall of Fame trainer, will highlight Saturday's 11-race program at the Hallandale Beach, Fla. track. The $75,000 Tropical Park Derby and the $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks and will kick off the sequence of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 that will offer a $400,000 jackpot guarantee.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will saddle High Noon Rider with the knowledge that the 8-year-old gelding has a two-mile victory on his 55-race resume, but he still has a big question heading into the Jerkens.

“He's won at two miles already at Presque Isle, but it was a much different class than he'll be running against Saturday,” said Joseph, whose trainee is rated second in the morning line at 9-2 in a most competitive renewal of the Jerkens.

GenStar Thoroughbreds' High Noon Rider, who has won 15 races and more than $600,000 in earnings, captured a two-mile starter optional claiming allowance by 2 ¼ lengths in October 2019. While the victory came over Presque Isle Downs' synthetic surface, the versatile gelding captured a 1 ½-mile starter handicap on turf at Laurel Park in his previous race.

“The owner wants to give him a shot in this race. I kind of believe he's best at a mile or a mile and an eighth, but he loves Gulfstream and he has won at two miles,” Joseph said. “We'll give it a try. He's in good form.”

High Noon Rider is coming off a fast-closing victory in the 1 1/16-mile victory in the Claiming Crown Emerald over Gulfstream Park's turf course, over which he has won six of 10 starts.

“He's coming off his best race and he loves Gulfstream,” Joseph said. “Those are the two reasons why I'm willing to give it a try.”

Edgard Zayas, who was aboard for the Emerald score, has the return call.

Goldigo Racing LLC, Rick Gold and Mark Mathiesen's Muralist is untested at two miles but will be saddled for the first time by a trainer with a record of marathon excellence. Among Brendan Walsh's growing list of accomplishments are victories in the Marathon (G2), a 1 ¾-mile race on dirt that was formerly a Breeders' Cup event but is still run on World Championships weekend. Walsh visited the Santa Anita winner's circle with Cary Street in 2014 and Scuba in 2016.

Muralist, a 4-year-old gelded son of Street Sense, won two of nine starts in Southern California before finishing a troubled fifth in the 1 5/8-mile Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G2) on Breeders' Cup Weekend at Keeneland. Trainer Dan Blacker returned to his Southern California base, while Muralist remained behind in Walsh's care.

Paco Lopez is scheduled to ride Muralist for the first tie Saturday.

West Point Thoroughbreds and partners' Focus Group enters the Jerkens as a graded-stakes winner over the Gulfstream Park turf course but will also be returning from a 10-month layoff. The 6-year-old Kitten's Joy gelding has been out of action since finishing seventh in the March 29 Pan American (G2), a race the Christophe Clement-trained gelding won the year before over the Gulfstream course.

Focus Group, who will return as a gelding, will be ridden by Junior Alvarado.

Trainer Michael Maker is represented by four horses in the Jerkens, including David Staudacher's Conviction Trade, the 4-1 morning-line favorite who will be ridden by defending two-time Championship Meet titlist Irad Ortiz Jr.; Michael Dubbs' Hieroglyphics, Paradise Farms Corp. and Staudacher's Treasure Trove, and William Butler's Dante's Fire.

Clear Vision, Tintoretto, Cowtown and Sir Anthony round out the field.

The post Jerkens Marathon Asks Unique Question Of 11 Entrants Saturday At Gulfstream appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Week in Review: Sparks of Brightness Amid the Winter Solstice

Leave it to one of the darkest days of the year to deliver two glimmering equine efforts that could combust into shining stars for the 2021 racing season.

On the cusp of the winter solstice, breakout races book-ended the Saturday Fair Grounds card. One was a smart, step-wise progression by a juvenile colt in a NW2L allowance who now has credible GI Kentucky Derby aspirations. The other was an admirably impressive comeback by a still-undefeated 3-year-old whose own chance at the 2020 Derby got derailed by injuries and untimely setbacks.

Both horses are campaigned by Godolphin, which is off to a rip-roaring start at the three-week-old New Orleans meet with a 7-1-5 record and $233,740 in earnings from just 17 starts through Saturday’s racing.

Proxy (Tapit) ably made the jump from the maiden-winning ranks to Derby relevancy in the first race Dec. 19. Even though his second lifetime two-turn win came against a short field, don’t hold that against him, as each one of the three rivals gave the Godolphin homebred a serious challenge.

Proxy brushed the gate at the break, recovered well, and emerged confidently from between horses to assume command onto the backstretch. The chart doesn’t show it, but he conceded the top spot between calls, giving up the rail and the lead to an eager pace prompter.

Proxy re-engaged and swatted away that foe at the entrance to the final bend, then braced for a tag-team attack from the two stretch-running colts who had been held in abeyance.

All four horses were within a length of one another three-sixteenths from the wire, and Proxy drifted out three times under left-handed pressure. He appeared to intimidate an outside rival, but being in close quarters only emboldened Proxy, and when asked for another level of torque in deep stretch he dug in and responded, opening up to win by 2 1/4 lengths at 7-10 odds for trainer Michael Stidham and jockey Angel Suarez.

Although Proxy’s final time of 1:45.56 was not stellar (76 Beyer Speed Figure), his effort impressed more from a “how he did it” perspective rather than “how fast.”

Proxy’s pedigree has a tantalizing, distance-centric slant. In 2007, his dam, Panty Raid, won the GI American Oaks Invitational S. at 10 furlongs on the turf, the GI Spinster S. at nine furlongs on a synthetic track, and the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. at nine furlongs on dirt.

Godolphin purchased Panty Raid for $2.5 million at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November sale, and she most notably produced the Stidham-trained Micheline (Bernardini), who earlier this year was a MSW and GISP Godolphin filly who set a course record for 1 5/16 miles in a $500,000 grass stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Proxy, it should be noted, has raced on Lasix for both of his Fair Grounds wins after running second, beaten a neck, without it in his Monmouth Park debut. He’ll have to ditch the Lasix in order to stamp himself as a top-tier Derby candidate, because this year’s edition (and the major points-earning Derby prep races) will be conducted without that anti-bleeding drug.

‘Max’ is Back

A dozen races and nearly six hours later on Saturday, Maxfield (Street Sense) pranced onto the floodlit Fair Grounds main track for the Tenacious S.

If the passage of nearly seven months since his last start made you forget what a sleek and athletically gifted equine specimen he is, the dark bay’s presence in this relatively modest $75,000 nightcap would soon snap you back to those long, warm days of spring, when “Max” was ranked as high as third on the TDN Derby Top 12 and was last seen professionally dismantling a pretty decent field in the GIII Matt Winn S. even though he was not fully cranked for a prime effort that day.

Depending on which prism you choose to view him through, Maxfield is either the most unlucky four-for-four racehorse on the planet right now or the luckiest.

On the unlucky side, recall that Max unleashed the most visually impressive juvenile stakes effort of 2019 when he ransacked the GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity field at Keeneland that October. He loomed as one of the favorites for the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but was forced to scratch the week of the race, and underwent ankle chip surgery in November that kept him sidelined until mid-winter.

Godolphin tasked trainer Brendan Walsh with mapping out a slow but steady 2020 comeback for Max. But just when he appeared poised to resurface in the entries, the pandemic hit, halting most racing and knocking the Triple Crown schedule askew.

Yet a few weeks later, this timing change appeared to work in Maxfield’s favor, because that May 23 Winn score would allow the homebred time for a summer prep race or two prior to the rescheduled Sept. 5 Derby.

But on June 10, Maxfield suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture in his right front leg while breezing a half-mile at Keeneland. Godolphin immediately issued a press release saying that it was looking forward to a 2021 campaign after the colt healed. But that prospect was hardly etched in stone.

So the fact that Max persevered through yet another long-haul rehab has to be considered the lucky part. The icing on the cake is that he thrived in Saturday’s comeback, and we still have yet to see his all-out best.

Shadowing the speed, the 1-2 favorite cut an intimidating presence while in stalk mode sitting second for most of an untroubled trip, and watching Max inch forward with metronomic precision down the backstretch gave the impression that he could have inhaled the frontrunner at will.

But jockey Florent Geroux instead waited until five-sixteenths out to cue his colt to quicken, with Max coming over the top at the three-sixteenths pole. He was hand-urged and not overly extended to win by 2 1/2 measured lengths in 1:43.35 (98 Beyer).

“I’m relieved,” Walsh said post-race. “It’s nice to get him back [to racing] and have him run so well. He was working so well going into it, you’re just looking for confirmation. He gave us what we needed to see…. He was a little fresh, so maybe he was a little more aggressive than normal. I don’t think he’s a deep closer by any means. He’s a stronger horse this year and I think we can ride him more prominently.”

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