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Joseph, Saez Earn Gulfstream Titles

Trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., who captured Saturday's GI Curlin Florida Derby with White Abarrio (Race Day), earned his first Championship Meet title at Gulfstream Park Sunday. Joseph closed out the meet with 58 winners, 12 victories ahead of Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, the defending 18-time titlist.

“Most definitely the Florida Derby was the icing on the cake. The Championship Meet title also means a lot. I grew up watching Todd my whole life. He's dominated for 18 years now. I'm 35 now. To take over from him after 18 years, I can't put into words what it means,” Joseph said. “I would just watch Todd win and dominate. He's a role model for any trainer who wants to look up to someone.”

With 122 wins, jockey Luis Saez reclaimed the Championship Meet title that had been held by Irad Ortiz Jr. for the past three years. Saez won back-to-back titles in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.

“It's something very big for us. Florida is like home. It's the first place we came to,” said the 29-year-old Panamanian. “The third time is very special to us.”

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Cyberknife Fine after Arkansas Derby Win

Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife (Gun Runner) exited his win in Saturday's GI Arkansas Derby in fine shape and is expected to ship to Louisville Tuesday to continue preparations for the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby. The colt, who was making his second stakes appearance after a sixth-place effort in the Jan. 22 GIII Lecomte S., continued a trend of frisky behavior Saturday at Oaklawn when dumping jockey Florent Geroux in the post parade.

“I was too far away to do anything about it, but Florent was able to jump up on him by himself,” Cox said. “He's feeling good [Sunday]. It's a nice, crisp morning and if you watched him walk around here, you definitely wouldn't think he ran a mile and an eighth yesterday. He's got a lot of energy.”

Cox also trains lightly raced Zozos (Munnings), who earned a spot in the Kentucky Derby with a runner-up effort in the Mar. 26 GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds.

Arkansas Derby runner-up Barber Road (Race Day) is on target to be the first Kentucky Derby starter for trainer John Ortiz, but the colt will remain at Oaklawn for the time being.

“Right now, we don't have any plans of moving him,” said Ortiz. “He sprung a shoe, so we're going to get that fixed first and address that. He got banged around there down the stretch, but he's just a tough little horse.”

Secret Oath (Arrogate), third while facing colts for the first time in the Arkansas Derby, will return to her own division for the May 6 GI Kentucky Oaks.

Secret Oath made a sweeping six-wide move on the second turn to reach contention before weakening late to finish three-quarters of a length behind Barber Road.

“She was tired,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Sunday. “That move she made was a terrific move for a filly at this stage of her career, to keep going. Watching it live, I thought she's probably going to hang a little bit here. She almost had to. It was a monster move. But when she came back, she was tired. The beautiful thing is we've got five weeks now. I said that before the race and now it gives us some direction. We're not thinking Derby. Now, we're focused on what we should be–the Oaks–and we've got five weeks to get back in form.”

Lukas said Secret Oath and stablemates Ethereal Road (Quality Road) and Ignitis (Nyquist) will ship Tuesday to Churchill Downs. Ignitis, third in the Smarty Jones S., is pointing for the Apr. 8 $400,000 Lafayette S. at Keeneland. Ethereal Road, the GII Rebel runner-up, is scheduled to make his next start in the Apr. 9 GI Toyota Blue Grass S. Ethereal Road has 20 points to rank 24th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

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Potts Faces Lengthy Suspension After Drug Found in His Tackroom

Embattled trainer Wayne Potts was hit with a 45-day suspension Sunday by the New York Gaming Commission, which charged that a drug found in his tackroom was not approved by the FDA for use in Thoroughbred horses. The suspension is set to begin Apr. 10. Potts has waived his right to an appeal.

The drug was found Feb. 17.

The New York regulators decided to divide up Potts's 45 day-suspension so that it correlates with still another suspension he is facing, one from the New Jersey Racing Commission. In January, the New Jersey commission posted a ruling in which Potts and his assistant trainer Bonnie Lucas were hit with a 30-day suspension and a $1,000 fine for “conduct detrimental to racing.” On Aug. 6, 2021, Potts allegedly told Lucas to not permit one of his trainees to be vanned off the track after a race at Monmouth Park despite an order to do so from the New Jersey Racing Commission (NJRC) veterinarian. That suspension is set to begin on opening day at Monmouth, which is May 7.

Beforehand, Potts will serve the first part of his New York suspension. After the New Jersey suspension has run its course, Potts will serve the remainder of the New York suspension. All together, his suspension adds up to 75 days and runs from Apr. 10 through June 23. Potts was the leading trainer at Monmouth last year.

Potts declined to comment when reached via text by the TDN, but forwarded a letter from the company Recellerate to the New York Gaming Commission regarding a product called Equiflow, which is purported to be a treatment for exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH). It goes on to describe Equiflow as “an investigational stem-cell derived concentrated protein serum developed as a treatment to EIPH.” The letter, signed by Recellerate President Karl Norbert, maintains that the product is not a performance-enhancer. Norbert writes that the FDA has approved no stem cell products for horses to date, which means that if Equiflow is regarded as an illegal substance then any horse treated in New York with any stem cell therapies would be subject to being excluded from racing.

In what appears to be unrelated to the finding of the non-FDA approved drug, NYRA announced last week that Potts was among six trainers who, effective last Wednesday, had lost their stall privileges and would be required to remove all their horses from the Belmont Park backstretch. However, Potts and the rest were being permitted to run at the NYRA tracks, for now, a moot points since Potts will be sidelined until late June.

Potts also ran afoul of authorities during last year's Saratoga meet when it was alleged he violated rules regarding a claim, which resulted in a 30-day suspension. The New York Gaming Commission charged that the horse, Mach One (Air Force Blue), was claimed by Potts's owners Frank Catapano and Nicholas Primpas by trainer Amira Chichakly and then transferred to Potts. Potts claimed another horse from the same race and trainers are not allowed to claim more than one horse in any given race.

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On to Derby for White Abarrio

White Abarrio (Race Day) came out of his victory in Saturday's GI Curlin Florida Derby in fine shape and will now be aimed at the GI Kentucky Derby, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. confirmed Sunday.

“He was further back than we envisioned and to see him be able to sit back that far off the pace and make his move, it gives you a lot of confidence, because you know he can run close to the pace and now sit back and be as effective,” Joseph said of his charge's Florida Derby win.

White Abarrio, third in last year's GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., is now two-for-two at three. He opened the year with a 4 1/2-length victory in the Feb. 5 GIII Holy Bull S.

Saffie said he continues to see improvement in the gray colt.

“Physically, he's not an overly big horse. He's filled out and he's grown a bit. He's a changed horse,” Joseph said. “He's changed from November to now, and he's showing it on the track. That's what you want. You want to be improving at this time of year. I feel he's making forward progressions.”

Whisper Hill Farm's Charge It (Tapit) came up with a gritty performance against more experienced colts while finishing second in the Florida Derby in only his third career start. The Todd Pletcher trainee, who hit the gate at the start, made a solid run at White Abarrio before racing greenly in the stretch.

“To get a real education in a race like that was very encouraging. He got a little green down the lane. He kind of drifted in behind that horse and I felt like if he could have just run straight that last 100 yards, he was going to be right there. But I thought it was a huge effort, considering everything,” said Pletcher, who added the Kentucky Derby will be under consideration for the well-bred colt.

Also aiming for the Kentucky Derby is the Florida Derby's third-place finisher Simplification (Not This Time).

“I am so happy with the race because the horse ran well and came back well,” trainer Antonio Sano said.

Simplification was second to White Abarrio in the Holy Bull before winning the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S.

“The plan was to be up front, but the pressure from Pappacap outside made Jose [Ortiz] move the horse before it was time,” Sano said. “It was a good field and my horse ran very good. In the Kentucky Derby, I believe he will run great.”

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