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‘We’ve Had A Great Year’: Tyler Gaffalione Rides Four Winners Friday At Gulfstream

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione continued his recent hot hand riding four winners on Friday's 10-race card at Gulfstream Park.

Gaffalione, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2015 born and raised in nearby Davie, Fla., won four of the first six races aboard Monte Ne ($3) in the first, Makisupa ($3.60) in the third, Battalion ($9.40) in the fifth and Uncaptured Soldier ($7.20) in the sixth.

“I had a lot of confidence coming into today. My agent always does a great job. He's lined up some great mounts for me, especially this week,” Gaffalione said. “Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Represented by agent Matt Muzikar, Gaffalione ranked fourth during last winter's Championship Meet with 67 wins. He missed the first four days of this year's meet and was off to a 3-for-32 start before winning twice in seven mounts Thursday.

“There's an adjustment period coming from Churchill and Keeneland. It's a much different configuration of the track,” Gaffalione said. “It's just a matter of getting comfortable again.”

Gaffalione came into the 2020-2021 Championship Meet having swept all five major meets in Kentucky, most recently Churchill Downs' fall stand that ended Nov. 29. He ranks second to two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz Jr. among all North American jockeys in wins this year and will soon pass his personal single-season record for purse earnings of nearly $15.2 million set in 2019.

“It's amazing. It's truly a blessing,” Gaffalione said. “My agent, he does such a great job. I owe him all the credit. He makes my job so much easier. We've had a great year and it's been a lot of fun.”

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Saturday’s Insights: Expensive Quality Road Colts Square Off at Gulfstream

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

2nd-Gulstream Park, $50k, Msw, 2yo, 6f, post time: 12:35 p.m.
Todd Pletcher saddles firster PRIME FACTOR (Quality Road) for China Horse Club and WinStar Farm. The bay colt was a $900,000 purchase at last year’s Keeneland September sale. He is out of Haylie Brae (Bernardini), a half-sister to graded-winning freshman sire Speightster and a granddaughter of blue hen mare Classy ‘n Smart (Smarten). Christophe Clement sends out Shel Evans’s Broadway (Quality Road), a $500,000 purchase at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale. The juvenile is the first foal out of Etiquette (Tapit), a half-sister to graded winner Pleasant Prince (Indy King) and from the family of Canadian champion Holy Helena. TJCIS PPs

7th-Gulfstream Park, $50k, Msw, 2yo, 1m, post time: 3:08 p.m.
Godolphin’s ALEXANDER VALLEY (Medaglia d’Oro) makes his first trip to the post for trainer Bill Mott. Purchased for $2.15-million at the 2019 Keeneland September sale, the bay colt is the first foal out of Grade I winner Tara’s Tango (Unbridled’s Song). TJCIS PPs

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Up-And-Coming Trainer Kent Sweezey Employs ‘The Jerkens Way’ For South Florida Success

Falling back on the knowledge he gained while serving as trainer Jimmy Jerkens' assistant for three years, Kent Sweezey has been making a name for himself while competing in South Florida on a year-round basis for the first time this year.

“We're doing old school stuff with the cheaper horses and, I'll tell you, it's working,” he said.

Fresh off a banner Gulfstream Park West meet, during which he saddled 11 winners from 31 starters, Sweezey visited the winner's circle twice Thursday afternoon and on the first day of the 2020-2021 Championship Meet at Gulfstream last Wednesday.

“We've got a good group of horses. It's been a learning curve. What we have now are a lot of the lesser-level horses, but they're winners. We've got a barn full of winners,” said Sweezey, who will saddle Phat Man for a start in Saturday's $100,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream. “They're lesser-level horses. They're not maiden special weight or allowance horses. I've got a couple of those. The 2-year-olds we have did well in Jersey and down here. I hope they keep going and we get some fresh 2-year-olds coming in.”

Sweezey's year-round success in South Florida has been very much a case of making the best of a very bad situation.

“When we stayed down here this year, the COVID thing was going on. I thought this was the one place that was staying open, would continue to run and had good purses,” Sweezey said. “I knew the place, I thought it was a good time to leave horses here year-round.”

Sweezey, who had a larger string based at Monmouth Park during the summer, wasn't able to be as hands-on with his horses at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, as he would have liked.

“I expected to come down every couple weeks and check things out and try to grow my business a little bit, but with restrictions that were put in, we couldn't travel like we wanted to,” he said. “I came down one time early on and had to quarantine for 14 days when I went back to Monmouth. I couldn't keep doing that.”

Sweezey's horses were left in very capable hands with assistant trainers Steve Moyer and Eddie Azate, who also had previously worked for Jerkens.

“The same things I learned is the same stuff Steve Moyer learned. With Eddie it's the same way. We all learned the Jerkens Way,” Sweezey said. “We just need to get the grooms to buy into it. We already know it works.”

Sweezey grew up in Lexington, Ky., where his parents operate Timber Town Stable.

“I did the sales, foals and mares, and yearling prep. I did all that,” he said.

Sweezey went on to work for trainer Christophe Clement for a year, before venturing to Southern California to work for trainer Eoin Harty for three years and returning east to serve as Jerkens assistant for three years.

“As soon as I started at the racetrack, I wanted to work for the best people,” he said. “I wanted to win races. That's what you get up for in the morning.”

Sweezey went out on his own in 2017 and has saddled 128 winners, including Phat Man, who gave him the first graded-stakes success while winning the Fred Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream Park last January.

Sweezey, who saddled Phat Man for runner-up finishes in last season's Harlan's Holiday and Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), is hoping to build on that success during the 2020-2021 Championship Meet and beyond at Gulfstream.

“We're big-time looking forward to the meet and we love Palm Meadows,” Sweezey said. “We're always trying to pick up new owners. We've had some calls, because they see us down here. This is a constant. The good thing about South Florida is it's a constant.”

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Ft. Lauderdale: Maker Hoping Pair Earn Chance At Pegasus Turf, Channel Cat Returns From Layoff

Upset winner of the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) in January with Zulu Alpha, trainer Mike Maker will find out whether he has a candidate or two to defend his title next month when he sends out Somelikeithotbrown and Tide of the Sea in Saturday's $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2) at Gulfstream Park.

The Fort Lauderdale for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles on the grass is the hometown prep for the 1 3 /16-mile Pegasus Turf, among seven graded-stakes worth $4.8 million in purses on Saturday, Jan. 23 led by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) for 4-year-olds and up on dirt.

Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable's Somelikeithotbrown is a two-time graded-stakes winner of $689,338 in purse earnings that drew the rail in a field of 10 for the Fort Lauderdale that includes eight stakes winners, six of them graded.

In his most recent effort, Somelikeithotbrown led all the way to beat fellow New York-breds in the Oct. 24 Mohawk at Belmont Park after finishing second to Fort Lauderdale rival Factor This in the Dinner Party (G2) at Pimlico Race Course. Both races came at 1 1/16 miles.

Somelikeithotbrown beat another Fort Lauderdale combatant, Halladay, to win the Bernard Baruch (G2) July 26 at Saratoga; Halladay came back to win the Fourstardave (G1) in his next start. Somelikeithotbrown was third by less than a length in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) at 2 and won the John Battaglia and Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) to open his 3-year-old season before being sidelined after a fourth in the Blue Grass (G2).

“He's a very attractive horse. He always showed talent as a 2-year-old. He followed it up with a great Breeders' Cup run,” Maker said. “He got a minor injury in the Blue Grass and we had to stop on him but he came back this year and had a heck of a year.

“He continues to do well,” he added. “Hopefully, if he can run his race on Saturday, we can move on to the Pegasus.”

Tyler Gaffalione, who won last year's Pegasus Turf for Maker, has the call on the typically front-running Somelikeithotbrown.

“That's his running style, and we're going to live and die by it,” Maker said.

Three Diamonds Farm's Tide of the Sea will be making his stakes debut in his ninth overall start and fifth since joining Maker's string after being purchased for $80,000 at Keeneland's November 2019 breeding stock sale.

“He's a late-maturing horse,” Maker said. “They purchased him out of the sale and he's had a good year. I think he's going to be a force to be reckoned with in the marathon division this year.”

Tide of the Sea takes a two-race win streak into the Fort Lauderdale, going 1 5/16 miles Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs and 1 ½ miles Oct. 7 at Keeneland. Joe Bravo rides from Post 7.

“I'd prefer to go a bit longer but we don't have that opportunity now so we figured we'd give him a shot going the mile and an eighth,” Maker said. “He's on top of his game right now so I think he deserves a chance. He's another one to get a good read on if we move on to the Pegasus or the McKnight.”

The $150,000 W.L. McKnight (G3) for 4-year-olds and up at 1 ½ miles on the turf is part of the Pegasus day undercard.

Michael Hui's Zulu Alpha upset the 2020 Pegasus Turf at odds of nearly 12-1, then went on to win the Mac Diarmida (G2) and run second by a neck to stablemate Bemma's Boy in the Pan American (G2) during the 2019-2020 Championship Meet. He was forced to miss the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) with slight swelling in his left front leg.

“He's doing fine. He's on the farm,” Maker said. “Hopefully here in the next two or three weeks we'll see if we get to bring him back in or not.”

Calumet Farm's homebred Grade 2 winner Channel Cat, closing in on $1 million in career earnings, will launch his comeback off a nine-month break between starts in Saturday's $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2).

The 5-year-old son of turf champion English Channel came within a length of winning last year's Fort Lauderdale, beaten a neck for second by Admission Office. After running a troubled 10th in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), Channel Cat was fourth by 1 ½ lengths in the Pan American (G2) March 28, his most recent race.

Channel Cat will be making his first start for Calumet's private trainer, Jack Sisterson, after winning five of 22 races and $948,592 in purse earnings for Todd Pletcher. Channel Cat will go up against a pair of Pletcher trainees, Grade 1 winner Halladay and multiple stakes winner Largent, in the Fort Lauderdale.

“No real major issues, just a little let down. With Calumet in Lexington and me being stabled at Keeneland, we've got paddocks to turn them out and things. It wasn't anything else,” Sisterson said. “Todd did a great job with him and they just wanted to keep in that routine of turning him out in the paddocks and things like that. He's done well since we shipped him down here and we look forward to seeing him run on Saturday.”

Corey Lanerie has the assignment from Post 5 of 10 in the Fort Lauderdale. A three-time stakes winner including the 2018 Bald Eagle Derby at Laurel Park and 2019 Bowling Green (G2) at Saratoga, Channel Cat has breezed twice over the turf at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

“I've had him for a couple of months now and he's just a typical English Channel. He's very workmanlike on the dirt, but when you put him on the grass he puts his best footsteps forward,” Sisterson said. “We don't [typically] win off a layoff but we'll expect him to improve a lot off the Fort Lauderdale and fingers crossed we can regain some of the form he had when Todd did so well with him. It might be hard to regain some of that, but he's doing well at the moment.”

A return trip to the Pegasus Turf would be in store, Sisterson said, should Channel Cat run well. Instilled Regard, last year's Fort Lauderdale winner, finished third in the 2020 Pegasus Turf.

“Absolutely, that's the goal,” Sisterson said. “Sometimes they slow down with age so we'll see if that's the case with him. Training-wise he doesn't show that he has, but you don't know until you bring them over there in the afternoon. That's the main thing.”

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