Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland's overall leading trainer by wins the past five years, is overseeing a string of horses in South Florida for the first time during Gulfstream Park's 2021-'22 Championship Meet in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Gonzalez, a 45-year-old native of Chile and cancer survivor, currently has eight horses at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County. He brought his first group down Jan. 13 and saddled his first starter of the winter, Magic Stable's I'm Listening, in Saturday's third race.
An 8-year-old New Jersey-bred mare, I'm Listening finished third in the 1 1/16-mile claiming event over Gulfstream's Tapeta surface. Gonzalez said the addition of the all-weather surface was a major factor in coming to Florida.
“I have some horses that I believe will like it, that's why I wanted to be here. The weather is great. The winter is tough in the north because of the weather,” he said. “It gives you good options. In the winter, if you have horses for grass or you can try the Tapeta, it will be good.”
In addition to Palm Meadows, Gonzalez continues to maintain a full barn at Laurel Park with an additional string at historic Pimlico Race Course. He owns or shares 18 individual meet titles at the two tracks, sweeping all three full meets in 2021 and leading the state with 110 wins and more than $3.6 million in purse earnings.
“This was my first week here and I wanted to see how I can make it work better, to see what days I can be here and what days I can stay there,” Gonzalez said. “The good thing is I have good assistants in all three places, so I am confident in them.”
Gonzalez has led Maryland in annual wins since 2017, averaging 106.4 per season. He earned his 1,000th career victory with He's a Shooter Oct. 14 at Laurel and ended 2021 with a lifetime-best $5,323,750 in purse earnings to go along with 161 wins.
“Like I say all the time, if you don't have good help you're done,” he said. “When you have the right help and you're confident in everybody, everything is going to be good.”
Gonzalez's next runner at Gulfstream is Magic Stable's Sloe Gin Biz in a five-furlong claiming sprint over the Tapeta Thursday, Jan. 27. The 3-year-old gelding drew far outside Post 8 and is third choice on the morning line at 4-1.
“We're going little by little, step by step. We'll come and take a look at the condition book and see what we have here,” Gonzalez said. “It's not easy here. It's tough to win races anywhere, but here they come from everywhere. But, we're very excited to try.”
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