Avery Island eyes next goal

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Avery Island, impressive winner of the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct in his 3-yearold debut, continued Friday toward his next objective, the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, by working five furlongs in 1:01.20 at the Palm Meadows training center.

“He worked very well and galloped out strong,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who witnessed the work instead of accompanying his other top Kentucky Derby prospect, Enticed, to New York for Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham.

McLaughlin said Avery Island worked solo, as usual, on Friday.

“He always works by himself,” McLaughlin said. “He can get a little keen when he gets in company. He just seems like he’s gotten better with every work, from his 2-year-old season and now at 3. He’s a big, strong colt with a long stride who is great mentally and just keeps improving all the time.”

McLaughlin said Avery Island would have one more work locally before shipping to New Orleans for the Louisiana Derby, to be run on March 24.

McLaughlin also breezed his emerging turf star Lucullan over the inner course at Palm Meadows on Friday. Lucullan, a son of Hard Spun owned by Godolphin, launched his 4-year-old campaign with a three-length, second-level optional-claiming victory here Feb. 11, earning a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He worked well today,” McLaughlin said. “He really ran big the last time. I just haven’t decided when or where we might run him next.”

McLaughlin has decided that he will bring Take Charge Paula back on March 31, Florida Derby Day, in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. Take Charge Paula, winner of the Grade 3 Forward Gal earlier in the meet, had her threerace win streak snapped when second behind the odds-on Fly So High in last Saturday’s Grade 2 Davona Dale.

“It was a strange race,” McLaughlin said. “My filly broke well, made the lead, dropped back while out in the middle of the track and easily could have packed it in at the three-eighths pole and finished fifth. Instead she came back to be second, and I was very proud of her for that. She was definitely second best behind the winner any way you look at it, but with that filly out of the Oaks, it makes sense to put ours back in there.”

Fly So High suffered a minor suspensory injury in the Davona Dale and will be sidelined indefinitely.

Another prominent 3-yearold on Friday’s work tab at Palm Meadows was the undefeated Mask, who breezed three furlongs in 36.20 in his first work since Jan. 20 and second since registering an eyecatching 6 1/4-length victory Jan. 6 in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man. Mask has been taken out of consideration for the Kentucky Derby by trainer Chad Brown.

Inside Information looks light

Only 11 fillies and mares were nominated to next Saturday’s $200,000 Inside Information, the final graded race on the local stakes schedule until Florida Derby Day, March 31.

The list is led by Grade 3 winners Jordan’s Henny and Rich Mommy, the first and third finishers in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie earlier in the meet.

Curlin’s Approval, the Hurricane Bertie runner-up who finished off the board as the odds-on favorite in the 2017 Inside Information, was conspicuous by her absence on the nomination sheet.

Optional claimers for Sunday

Two first-level optionalclaiming races highlight Sunday’s 13-race program. The first, carded at 7 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares on the turf, drew a field of 11 led by Summer Luck, runner-up in the 2017 Davona Dale. Summer Luck has been freshened since finishing fifth as the 2-1 favorite when facing older horses for the first and only time last fall at Keeneland.

The co-featured 12th event will be for older horses at six furlongs over the main track. Only seven signed on, topped by The Hardest Way, Uno Mas Modelo, and Adulation.

Apprentice gets first U.S. win

Apprentice jockey Heriberto Figueroa registered his first victory in the U.S. here on Thursday, riding Mr G T for trainer Alexis Cordero-Lopez in the fourth race.

Figueroa, 18, graduated from Puerto Rico’s famed jockey academy on New Year’s Day and won three races from 10 mounts in his native country before coming to Gulfstream Park last month. Figueroa has been taken under the wing of Hall of Fame rider Angel Cordero Jr.

Figueroa, whose older brother Luis rode here last spring and summer, said he plans to remain here through the end of the Championship meet and then hopes to move on to New York later this spring.

Future Major League Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz was on site here Friday filming an edition of his new show, “Big Papi Needs a Job,” which premiered earlier this year on Fusion TV. The premise of the show has Ortiz trying out a variety of new jobs after “puttering around the house” following his retirement from baseball at the end of the 2016 season. Ortiz was checking out the prospects of a future as a racehorse owner while getting a complete tour of the grounds and barn area before and during Friday’s racing program.

A memorial service for the late John Brunetti Sr. will be held at Hialeah Park on Monday at 12:30 p.m. Brunetti, who owned Hialeah for more than 40 years, died last Friday at the age of 87.