“Very pretty boy born of a maiden mare. Good bone and such a sweet expression!” said breeders Carrie and Craig Brogden.

A debut winner at Gulfstream at two, Drain the Clock returned the following season to add wins in the GIII Swale S., GIII Bay Shore S. and GI Woody Stephens S., where he defeated subsequent champion sprinter Jackie's Warrior.

Drain the Clock retired with seven wins in 15 career starts, including three victories in graded stakes races, for earnings of $698,000.

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That makes this a surprisingly congested zone, ample for separate assessment. And since clinging to a five-figure fee somewhat represents a show of faith, some of these sires tend to have a fair case in their favor. At a time when fees are widely perceived to be challenging, this is a nook that harbors some decent value.

It is broadly populated by three types. First are the veterans who have achieved an honorable viability over the years (and we know how difficult that is) but are now suffering the commercial prejudice in favor of fresher blood. On the other hand, we have a bunch of younger guns, typically riding out the bumps between the vogue of novelty and distrust of racetrack exposure. And then there are a few in between, horses in their prime who have settled into a workable niche that keeps them competitive with the next tier up.

The senior group is headed by a remarkable pair, both about to enter their 20th year at stud, with a body of work behind them that will forever embarrass the vast majority of this lot. And there's plenty of life left in MINESHAFT, judging from seven stakes scorers this year (one for each of his lifetime Grade I winners) at a ratio that Uncle Mo, Medaglia d'Oro and Tapit have barely matched. A 1-2 in the GII Cigar Mile showcased his continued prowess, both Hoist the Gold and Senor Buscador already owning wins at that level earlier in the year. The former is now in the millionaires' club, and will soon be joined there by the latter assuming he perseveres in 2024.

SKY MESA is still more neglected, yet similarly remains in the top 15 active sires by lifetime earnings, with ratios of black-type and graded stakes action that measure up respectably against all but the elite names. Remember that these old boys can draw some venerable influences close: Sky Mesa's first three dams are by Storm Cat, Affirmed and Round Table, yet the continued vigor of his family has been lately evinced by his half-sister's son Maxfield (Street Sense). Mineshaft's first three dams, meanwhile, are by Mr. Prospector, Hoist the Flag and Herbager (Fr)! Both Mineshaft and Sky Mesa have superb families and to be able to access their blood, relatively undiluted by the huge books nowadays flooding the gene pool, is a diminishing opportunity too obvious to any enlightened breeder to require the formal gilding of a place on the Value Podium.

Really I should have them both up there, but they covered 40 mares between them last year and that tide is hardly going to turn at this stage. Happily, we know them to be in good hands and they will remain long cherished once their service is finally over.

Ditto another veteran, MIDNIGHT LUTE, who had a few more mares than that pair last spring but again hardly the numbers commensurate with his five elite winners–including not just Midnight Bisou but more recently Smooth Like Strait, himself now launching a stud career at a bargain fee–and the solid ratios that also keep him inside the top 20 active sires.

At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, most of the younger sires are awaiting the emergence of their first runners. (By the way, don't forget that we gave the absolute beginners a separate assessment, at the outset of this series, highlighting the claims of one standing at this fee in COUNTRY GRAMMER.)

One of the younger guns that has already tested the water on the racetrack, however, has done so with quite promising results. For while COLLECTED found himself in a very competitive intake, his first sophomores this year included winners of the GII Del Mar Derby, GII Pennine Ridge S. and GII Black-Eyed Susan S.

Drain the Clock | Sara Gordon

Among several only just embarked on their new careers, INDEPENDENCE HALL and especially DRAIN THE CLOCK have some big numbers behind them–unsurprisingly, in view of the 101 Beyer clocked by the former in his record-margin romp in the GIII Nashua S., or the similar precocity displayed by the latter as prelude to his GI Woody Stephens success. TACITUS, HAPPY SAVER and IDOL were contrasting brands, on the margin of the elite around a second turn but amply demonstrating the functionality of their aristocratic genes. Happy Saver, in fact, has none other than Weekend Surprise replicated top and bottom: she's his third dam, while her son A.P. Indy is the damsire of Super Saver.

The latter has another son trading in this bracket in RUNHAPPY, whose fee slips despite producing a GI Hopeful winner in the $12,000 yearling Nutella Fella. We saw another glimpse of the real Smile Happy in the GII Alysheba S., meanwhile, and the stakes are now pretty minimal for those keeping the faith with Runhappy.

A couple of nuggets at this level are the Lane's End pair, THE FACTOR and TONALIST. The former had a quiet year by his very consistent standards, and needed to come down in line with his yearling yield, but there's no knocking a stellar lifetime ratio of two winners to three named foals. As for Tonalist, a single horse has blatantly distorted his earning power but what Country Grammer has represented much more fairly is all the toughness one would hope to inherit from Tapit over Pleasant Colony. It's heartening to see that this was recognized by as many as 115 mare owners last spring, twice as many as Tonalist entertained in 2021.

Another farm that demands a visit for those working to this kind of budget is Spendthrift. Admittedly its $10k trio have all long shed the novelty value prized by its more commercial clients, as was clear when their latest yearlings entered the ring. Continued demand in the breeding shed, however, suggests that people can glimpse a different type of value here.

Sure enough, on the track JIMMY CREED produced another three graded stakes winners including the evergreen Casa Creed, whose Fourstardave H. win was his fourth at the top level. Jimmy Creed is carving out a very viable place at this level, with his book back up into three figures last spring, and only narrowly misses joining one of his neighbors on the podium.

VALUE PODIUM

Bronze: HONOR A.P.
Honor Code–Hollywood Story (Wild Rush)
Lane's End $10,000

Honor A.P. | Sarah Andrew

This is our clear pick among the many young stallions whose farms are hoping that this kind of fee will prove only a foundation, once some actual runners can attest to their genetic prowess.

That, of course, is the reverse of the usual scenario. As a rule, the commercial market backs away faster and faster, the closer a stallion gets to the unsparing exposure of the racetrack. Everyone knows that most young sires will fail, and tries to ride their fleeting commercial momentum. If you truly believe in a horse, however, this is the time to double down.

Only where could you hope to find a combination of top-class pedigree, physique and performance for just 10 grand? Well, right here at Lane's End–that's where.

Honor A.P. beat the subsequent Horse of the Year at Santa Anita, and did so fair and square. He would surely have gone close to doing so again, but for his nightmare trip in the September “Derby”. The matter was left unresolved by his further misfortune, but nobody could deny that he had ticked the performance box in the little opportunity he had.

Physique? How does $850,000 Saratoga yearling sound?

And as for the genetic package, he's out of a Grade I winner (at both two and five) by a sire from one of the great modern families. True, Honor Code himself has proved a rather disappointing sire, to the extent that he recently became another far-sighted “rescue” by a Japanese industry prepared to play a longer game. Honor Code promptly came up with Honor Marie's GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. as something to remember him by, but his departure is probably good news for his son. It must have been difficult to launch Honor A.P. alongside his own sire, when the latter had failed to pull away into a higher tier of the market.

Honor A.P. now gets a clear run even as he prepares to launch his first runners. He made a perfectly solid sales debut, his 48 yearlings processed at $55,145 highlighted by a $375,000 colt. Just because Honor Code did not prove consistently potent, that doesn't alter the fact that Honor A.P. converted a stellar genetic legacy into something luminously functional on the track. Unsurprisingly he struggled for numbers in his third book, but we've been given every incentive to hang in there with a fee cut from $15,000. With luck, his quality will start to now take his mares past those floundering against the dull tides of quantity.

Silver: FROSTED
Tapit–Fast Cookie (Deputy Minister)
Darley $10,000

Frosted | Darley

Could it be that Frosted has finally reached a point where he becomes a value proposition?

There's no denying that he has been a letdown to this point. The fastest GI Met Mile winner in history retired with his 123 Beyer as the most expensive option of the 2017 intake, at $50,000, and averaged around $225,000 with his first yearlings. And here he is, after 344 starters, still waiting for that breakout Grade I winner.

In the meantime, his fee has slumped consecutively until settling at $10,000 last year. But if we reset our bearings accordingly, we'd have to concede that he has had a quietly productive campaign, his 18 black-type performers including three graded stakes winners (plus one in Australia). True, he's still benefiting from some of the classy mares he received early on: Keeneland Grade III winner Frost Point, for instance, is out of a Grade I-winning millionaire. So we'll have to see whether he can maintain this kind of output with rather lesser raw materials, but it's very striking that last spring Frosted moved his book up from 108 to 154.

Evidently the kind of commercial breeders who could not initially afford him have by no means given up on the gray, and it may be that a different kind of cocktail will shake some fresh flavors–as a sprint influence, for instance, and even as a turf one, as in the case of globetrotting Jasper Krone–out of a horse that once seemed to have the world at his feet. After all, he traded 66 of his latest crop of yearlings at $65,475, which would do very nicely indeed off this kind of fee; while one sold for $50,000 in the previous crop soared to $900,000 at OBS in April.

Frosted is still only on his fourth crop and that leaves ample scope for a market thaw.

Gold: CROSS TRAFFIC
Unbridled's Song–Stop Traffic (Cure The Blues)
Spendthrift $10,000

Cross Traffic | Spendthrift

This horse has endured some dazing fluctuations since being crowned champion freshman by multiple indices in 2018. His reward in 2019 was the attention of 188 mares at $25,000, up from just 60 at $7,500 the previous year. The resulting crop were juveniles of 2022, when 33 individual winners from 79 starters put him second in the all-comers' 2-year-old table, with no fewer than 13 of them earning black-type. And how did they follow through this year? Well, 63 of his 105 sophomore starters won, notably GI Ashland S. winner Defining Purpose. And another 3-year-old filly was on track for a stunning Grade I debut when taking her unbeaten spree of five (Saratoga maiden and stakes at two, another stakes and two graded stakes at three) into the Test S. Her name, you will scarcely need reminding, was Maple Leaf Mel.

From his older stock, Cross Traffic also produced homebred Here Mi Song to win the GIII Commonwealth S for a three-horse program that also includes her dam, an apt measure of the type of service he can perform for the smaller breeder.

Ludicrously, however, his 2020 book plunged by two-thirds and he ended up with only 28 live foals, of which a bare dozen started this year, leaving him submerged in the general sires' table despite 14 black-type performers. He must continue to ride out this slump after another couple of quiet years, but his book last spring responded to his 2022 deeds with a rally to 84.

The hope now must be that Cross Traffic can consolidate the second chance he has earned from those fickle breeders. It will assist his cause that the familiar precocity of his stock tends to be fortified with maturity, after the fashion of near-millionaire Ny Traffic who soaked up four campaigns. Cross Traffic himself, remember, raced only as a 4-year-old, when making up for lost time with a GI Met Mile second and GI Whitney success on just his fourth and fifth starts.

His family has some fairly exotic seeding, albeit no more so than the big horse on this farm. And it is full of runners, not least his dual Grade I-winning dam. She has additionally given Unbridled's Song the mother of Gulfport (Uncle Mo), who won the Bashford Manor by a dozen lengths last year before his promotion to replace Forte (Violence) in the GI Hopeful S. There's some real genetic vigor here, then, and Cross Traffic has now shown twice over-with his juveniles of 2018 and 2022-the kind of crop he can produce if only he's given the chance. And, at this kind of money, a proper, sustained chance is just what he deserves.

Sires At $10,000: Breeders Selections

Fabricio Buffolo | Keeneland

Fabricio Buffolo, Buffalo Bloodstock
Gold Medal: Happy Saver
I think he is a nice example of what a true American dirt horse looks like, especially with such an impressive and powerful shoulder. I think it's hard to not think about his name and not associate it with such a solid and sturdy front end. He was a very good racehorse who showed grit and resilience throughout his races against all the best in the country. He is an interesting young stallion.

Silver Medal: Midnight Lute
When considering the group of stallions with runners standing at $10,000, I think that he stands out with a solid percentage of black-type horses and black-type winners to runners, including five Grade I winners which is not usual at this price bracket.
He's quite versatile with his progeny having good performers on different surfaces and distances, and the key lies in finding a mare that can suit him physically.

Bronze Medal: Jimmy Creed
He is another horse that has done fairly well at this stud fee bracket getting a good percentage of black-type horses compared to others, including some with higher price tags. It's evident that the market can be quite tough on horses like him that have had a decent number of crops, but he has received continued support in the last few years attesting to the confidence that breeders have found in him.

The Factor | Lee Thomas

Elgin Hamner, Prime Bloodstock
Gold Medal: The Factor
If The Factor had not left for a couple of years, I believe he would be a constant top 25 sire. He's great value to have a shot at a good runner.

Silver Medal: Frosted
I was really high on him coming out, he's a strong horse with a strong race record. Love the Tapit over Deputy Minister. Now, he has established himself as a racehorse producer.
He's always top two or three of his crop and gets a bigger, stronger horse than The Factor. They seem to run anywhere and are selling ok. He just needed a couple of big horses earlier.

Bronze Medal: Goldencents
It's hard to make it as a sire, but they run early and often. They don't sell as well as they should (can lack size), but each one born could be a runner.

Honorable Mention: Honor A.P.
No runners yet, but the physical when he stamps them is pretty strong. We have to keep that A.P. blood going, it's the best two turn blood of the last 20 years, and he is one of the last of that line with a shot.

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Gainesway also announced that GI Woody Stephens S. winner DRAIN THE CLOCK (Maclean's Music) has his first mare in foal as well–Amelia Island (Hook and Ladder), the dam of Grade III winner Amelia's Wild Ride (D'Wildcat). Drain the Clock stands for $10,000 at Gainesway.

KEEPMEINMIND (Laoban), winner of the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., covered Wintrily (Carpe Diem), his first mare bred reported to be in foal. He stands for $6,500 at Sequel Stallions New York.

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The farm's top stallion is currently the leading active sire in North America by Grade I winners (29), Grade I horses (62), graded stakes winners (96), graded stakes performers (184), stakes winners (154), and stakes performers (299), and he is the all-time leading sire by lifetime progeny earnings ($188,654,112).

The fee is the third-highest announced thus far for 2023, behind Spendthrift Farm's Into Mischief at $250,000, and Hill 'n' Dale's Curlin at $225,000.

In 2022, his progeny was led by the unbeaten Flightline, whose dominant victories in the GI Metropolitan H. and GI Pacific Classic S. (G1) have established him as the odds-on favorite for this year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland.

A sire-of-sires, his top sons at stud include Constitution, Tonalist, Tapiture, Essential Quality, Frosted and Gainesway's Tapwrit, whose first foals raced this year, and who was the sire of a `TDN Rising Star' Victory Formation at Keeneland last week. He will stand for $10,000 in 2023.

McKinzie will remain at $30,000 in his third year at stud. His first weanlings will be offered this fall, along with those of GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Spun to Run, who will again stand for $10,000 in 2023.

Karakontie (Jpn), the sire of this year's GI Del Mar Oaks winner Spendarella, remains at $10,000, as does Raging Bull (Fr), in his second season at stud at Gainesway.

Gainesway will add two new stallions to its roster for the 2023 breeding season, Olympiad and Drain the Clock. The latter will stand for $10,000, while Olympiad's stud fee will be determined after his next anticipated start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Following is the complete Gainesway stallion roster and their advertised fees for the 2023 breeding season:

Tapit – $185,000
McKinzie – $30,000
Drain the Clock  – $10,000
Karakontie – $10,000
Raging Bull – $10,000
Spun to Run – $10,000
Tapwrit – $10,000
Olympiad  – TBD

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The 4-year-old broke his maiden by six lengths as a juvenile at Gulfstream Park and won four of his first five starts going into his 3-year-old season, culminating with a 6 1/4-length score in the GIII Swale S. He also added a victory in the GIII Bay Shore S. before defeating Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in the GI Woody Stephens S. at Belmont Park. Drain the Clock retired with record of 15-7-3-0 and earnings of $698,000.

“Drain the Clock is an imposing physical with tremendous speed who fits the mold of what breeders are looking for,” said Gainesway's newly appointed Stallion Director Ryan Norton. “That is why we are excited to offer Share The Upside breeding rights in this exciting new stallion.”

Drain the Clock will stand for $10,000 in 2023. Please contact Ryan Norton for details regarding how to earn your breeding right through Gainesway's Share the Upside program.

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Trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., the 4-year-old Maclean's Music chestnut won 5-of-8 starts last year, including scores in the Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream and the Grade 3 Bay Shore at the Big A.

Joseph, Jr. said Drain the Clock is one of three horses, along with Ny Traffic and Three Chimneys Farm and e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' stakes-placed Collaborate under consideration for the seven-furlong Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap on April 9 at Aqueduct.

Both Drain the Clock and Ny Traffic could also point to races on the Dubai World Cup undercard in March with the six-furlong Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen and Group 2 Godolphin Mile possible.

“Drain the Clock is doing well,” Joseph, Jr. said. “He'll run in the Gulfstream Sprint in February and then he might go to Dubai. It's between the Carter and Dubai, but we hope to bring someone up for the Carter – either Ny Traffic or Collaborate.”

John Fanelli, Cash Is King, LC Racing, Paul Braverman and Team Hanley's multiple graded stakes placed New York-bred Ny Traffic is likely to make his next start in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile on March 5.

The 5-year-old son of Cross Traffic bested fellow state-breds last out in the Hudson contested over a sloppy and sealed main track on October 30 at Belmont Park.

The versatile grey was a game second around two turns in the nine-furlong 2020 Grade 1 Haskell Invitational, but Joseph, Jr. said he would like to focus on one-turn events this season.

“He seems to be best cut back to one turn,” Joseph, Jr. said of Ny Traffic, who had to miss the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in December at the Big A after an illness. “He fought off the bug he had and he's probably going to go to the Gulfstream Mile in March. He's been working well.”

Joseph, Jr. nominated both A.P.'s Secret and Eldon's Prince to Saturday's Grade 3 Withers but said both are unlikely to make the journey with A. P.'s Secret under consideration for the Grade 2 Risen Star on February 19 at Fair Grounds.

“I might look at the Risen Star for one [A.P.'s Secret] and Eldon's Prince is going to stay on the grass for now,” Joseph, Jr. said.

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The Grade 1 stakes winner, who hadn't seen racing action since finishing fourth in the Aug. 28 H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at Saratoga, set fractions of 22.08, 44.42 and 56.19 seconds while under heavy outside pressure from Gatsby and asserted his class in the stretch to win by a half-length in a quick 1:08.63.

“At the top of the stretch, I said, 'Go on Champ!' Normally, I watch a race and watch it very nervous. With him, I never thought he would get beat,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “I don't think we have him fully cranked, so to see him back like that…”

Tyler Gaffalione rode Drain the Clock for the first time Friday.

“There was speed on the inside and outside of us. Saffie told me to use him going away from there. He broke alertly and put himself in a great spot. He took a lot of pressure the whole way around there but he's a classy horse, very classy individual, and he responded when I asked him,” Gaffalione said.

“He's a racehorse. You can see on his form, he's very consistent. He shows up every time. Coming off the layoff, it's not an ideal situation taking that much pressure, but he handled everything great and Saffie always does a great job getting them ready.”

Sent to post as the 2-5 favorite, the 4-year-old son of Maclean's Music had won three races in four prior starts at Gulfstream, including last season's Swale (G3), before hitting the road to win the Bay Shore (G3) at Aqueduct and the Woody Stephens (G1) at Belmont. His only loss at Gulfstream came in a second-place finish in the two-turn Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (G2).

“I think he's going to have a big year,” said Joseph, who mentioned the Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) on Feb. 19 as a likely target.

Gatsby held second, 5 ¼ lengths ahead of Where Paradise Lay.

Todd Pletcher-trained Nocturnal, the 2-1 second choice who was out of action since a Feb. 28 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream, was never a factor after breaking a step slowly from his rail post position.

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The Todd Pletcher-trained Nocturnal, who hasn't raced since capturing a Feb. 27 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park, has always been highly regarded as a horse with stakes potential.

“We always felt he had that kind of potential. Unfortunately, he's had some minor setbacks along the way, and it's been hard to keep him on a consistent schedule,” Pletcher said. “Hopefully, this time around, we can accomplish that.”

Nocturnal debuted at Gulfstream in a March 2020 in a seven-furlong maiden special weight race, finishing second after setting the pace behind Pletcher-trained Dr Post, who went on to finish second behind Florida Derby (G1) winner Tiz the Law in the 2020 Belmont Stakes (G1).

The son of Palace Malice went to the sidelines for seven months but came back to graduate at Gulfstream in January with a front-running 3 ¾-length romp at a mile. Five weeks later, the 4-year-old Kentucky-bred came right back to win an entry-level optional claiming allowance by 1 ¼ lengths before going back to the sidelines.

Nocturnal, who will be ridden by Luis Saez, has been gelded since his most recent race.

“He's trained really well, as he always has. We had originally entered him in a mile race that didn't fill, so he kind of landed in a race that I'm concerned might be a little too short for him,” Pletcher said. “We're hoping for a good hot pace, and hopefully, he can close into that.”

Nocturnal drew the rail post position, four stalls inside Drain the Clock in the starting gate.

“It's not ideal, but I do think with the other speed in the race, he'll be able to work out a good trip,” Pletcher said. “We anticipate they'll run away from him early on and hope Luis can work him to the outside.”

Drain the Clock, the 8-5 morning-line favorite, will face older horses for the first time Friday after establishing himself as one of the country's leading 3-year-old sprinters.

The son of Maclean's Music will return from a well-deserved freshening since finishing fourth in the Aug. 28 H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at Saratoga. After winning three races and finishing second after setting the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth (G2), Drain the Clock went on the road to win the Bay Shore (G3) at Aqueduct and the Woody Stephens (G1) at Saratoga, beating Jackie's Warrior. He finished second behind Jackie's Warrior in the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga before his subpar run in the Jerkens.

“We're happy to have him back on Friday. Hopefully, he can come back with a bang,” Joseph said.

Dare to Dream Stable LLC's Quick Tempo, a stakes-winning son of Tapizar, enters Friday's feature off a close-up third in a Keeneland allowance on turf. Junior Alvarado has the call aboard the Christopher Davis-trained 3-year-old.

Sagamore Mischief, Flap Jack, Where Paradise Lay and Gatsby are also entered.

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Endorsed, who was claimed for $100,000 out of a third-place finish in an Aug. 26 optional claiming allowance at Saratoga, has been winless in three starts for trainer Mike Maker, finishing third in the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes, fourth in the Phoenix (G2) at Keeneland and a close third in an optional claiming allowance at Churchill while being ridden by Gaffalione for the first time.

“Since Mike took over his training, he's really coming into his own. He's had three big performances in his last three races against top-quality horses,” Gaffalione said. “It seems like he leaves himself with too much to do. I'm hoping the extra difference will help him out and he gets a clean trip.”

The 5-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro is graded stakes-placed and has run respectably in a few Grade 1 stakes, but he is still seeking to win his first stakes in a steady 23-race career.

Albaugh Family Stables LLC's Dennis' Moment enters the Mr. Prospector coming off his first win since capturing the 2019 Iroquois at Churchill Downs. The Dale Romans-trained son of Tiznow captured a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance at Keeneland.

Corey Lanerie has the call aboard Dennis' Moment.

Drain the Clock was nominated to the Mr. Prospector, but trainer Saffie Joseph has opted to run the Grade 1 winner in a Friday optional claiming allowance off a layoff and run Daniel Alonso's Wind of Change and Vegso Racing Stable's Officiating in Saturday's stakes.

Wind of Change, who won the ungraded Mr. Prospector at Monmouth in May, is coming off a second-place finish in an optional claiming allowance in his first start on Gulfstream's Tapeta course.

“I thought he handled it well. Obviously, going in there was a bit of unknown because he had never been on it. Overall, I thought it was a good race,” Joseph said. “The horse that beat him [King of Dreams] came back and won a stake. A good horse beat him.”

Joseph expects Wind of Change to be a forward factor in the Mr. Prospector.

“His best style of running is on lead, so we're trying, hopefully, to go to the lead,” he said.

Edgard Zayas has the mount aboard the Brazilian-bred 6-year-old.

Officiating, who made a strong middle move on Tapeta before fading in the Showing Up, won the off-the-turf Bear's Den at seven furlongs over a sloppy track in his previous start.

“He's kind of a weird kind of horse. We've only had him for four starts, and he's trained really well on the dirt. We only ran him once on dirt, and it was on the slop, and he handled it well. He won a stake,” Joseph said. “His previous races on dry dirt, he's never hit the board. It's kind of an experiment. He's training so well on the dirt. I want to give him one try.”

Luis Saez is scheduled to ride Officiating for the first time.

Calumet Farm's Flap Jack, Russell Staggs' Doc Amster and Stonehedge LLC's Poppy's Pride round out the field.

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The 3-year-old son of Maclean's Music, who captured the G1 Woody Stephens on the June 5 Belmont Stakes undercard, has been on the sidelines since finishing fourth in the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes August 28 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Sunday's breeze was the latest in a series of five workouts in preparation for his return in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance in Friday's Race 7 feature.

“He's had good preparation. We'll get him started in the allowance, and after that, we'll come up with a plan for where we'll go to next,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said.

Tyler Gaffalione has the mount on Drain the Clock, who will take on six rivals, including Todd Pletcher-trained Nocturnal, who has been idle since breaking his maiden and winning an optional claiming allowance back-to-back during last season's Championship Meet.

Drain the Clock has won three races in four starts at Gulfstream, including last season's G3 Swale. His only loss at Gulfstream came in a second-place finish in the two-turn G2 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes.

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