Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Soutache kicks off his season
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Now comes the calm before the storm, the final Saturday before the big blowout. A 13-race card with two stakes, each with a sixhorse field, will just have to do as a placeholder for Gulfstream Park fans looking ahead to the huge Florida Derby card next Saturday.
The Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes, once a key early-season Kentucky Derby stepping-stone won by the likes of Spectacular Bid, Swale, and Fly So Free, is the main attraction this Saturday at Gulfstream, where the ever-burgeoning Rainbow 6 once again is a prime storyline. The $100,000 Hutcheson goes as race 12 and is part of the Rainbow 6 sequence (races 8-13), whereas its filly counterpart, the $75,000 Any Limit, comes earlier in the day as race 6. First post is noon Eastern.
The Rainbow 6 was on pace to have more than $4 million in its rollover jackpot when Saturday action gets under way, barring a sweep by a solo perfect ticket Thursday or Friday. The Rainbow 6 has gone unswept since nearly $20 million was disbursed Jan. 28. The jackpot will be dispersed next Saturday, adding to the drama of an afternoon that will spotlight the $1 million Florida Derby and six other stakes on a blockbuster 14-race card.
The six-furlong Hutcheson, for its part, has seen its stature diminish through the years, victimized mostly by trainers using fewer preps for their Derby prospects. Gulfstream officials wound up shortening it from seven furlongs while moving it to a later date on the racing calendar, and still the Hutcheson typically gets what it got this year – a short field of horses seeking a niche.
Soutache, a standout last year in the Florida-bred ranks, will make his 3-year-old debut off a nearly six-month layoff as one of the favorites in the 64th Hutcheson. Trainer Ralph Nicks is taking a wait-and-see outlook on where Soutache might fit in the grand scheme of things.
“He’s come back good, moving real well, that’s the main thing,” Nicks said. “If he runs well, we might take a look at something like the Lexington,” a 1 1/16-mile race on April 14 at Keeneland that offers Kentucky Derby points.
“But let’s get through this,” Nicks said. “It’s a good spot for us to get started.”
Soutache, a winner of two legs in the Florida Sire Stakes series last year for ownerbreeder GoldMark Farm, comes favorably drawn in the outside post, where jockey Tyler Gaffalione can take measure of the abundance of speed drawn to his inside. One of those fleet opponents is Tricks to Doo, who returns to Gulfstream after being regrouped by Arnaud Delacour at the Classic Mile in Ocala, Fla., following a fourth-place finish here last month behind Strike Power in the sevenfurlong Swale Stakes.
“The seven-eighths was a little too far for him,” Delacour said. “The track was probably a little bit tiring, but Strike Power is a very nice horse and I didn’t see any excuses.”
Tricks to Doo, owned by the Lael Stable of Barbaro fame, will have Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard for the first time and breaks from post 4.
Impact Player (post 1, Luis Saez), 2 for 2 at the meet, also figures to take his share of action. He is trained by Todd Pletcher. Belle Tapisserie (post 2, Robby Albarado) and Tampa shipper Madison’s Luna (post 3, Julien Leparoux) figure on the wagering fringes. My Chinumado (post 5, Jose Perez) will be the rank outsider.
Any Limit: Elevenses formidable
On form alone, Elevenses looks like a deserving odds-on favorite for owner Joseph Shields and trainer Jimmy Jerkens when she faces five other 3-year-old fillies in the fifth running of the six-furlong Any Limit.
But there’s also a strong intangible factor involved – the race is named for the speedy Shields homebred who was trained by Jerkens’s legendary father, Allen Jerkens, throughout a 28-race campaign that ended in 2009 with nearly $660,000 in earnings.
“It’d be nice to win this,” Jerkens said.
Elevenses, a flashy winner in two three career starts, will have Saez aboard and breaks from post 4. Her lone defeat came here Jan. 6 in a restricted stakes at six furlongs.
“It looks like there’s a lot of gas in there against us Saturday,” Jerkens said. “The one time she got beat, she got outrun a little and hung wide. We’ll do all we can to prevent that from happening again, hopefully get a nice trip, tuck in behind a couple of pacesetters.”
Roses in the South (post 1, Alvaro Donis), an 11-1 winner of the restricted Melody of Colors here last month, looks like the top challenger. She goes turf to dirt on a slight stretchout from five furlongs.
◗ As of Thursday, the prospective field for the Florida Derby included Audible, Catholic Boy, Promises Fulfilled, Strike Power, Storm Runner, Tip Sheet, and Fire When Ready, with three others listed as possible by the Gulfstream racing office – King Zachary, Mississippi, and Millionaire Runner. Entries will be drawn Wednesday.