Navarro has edge in numbers

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mike Maker is commonly referred to as the king of the Claiming Crown. But this year, there is a new sheriff in town.

Maker, who has won more races – 16 – than any other trainer in Claiming Crown history, will be overshadowed in Saturday’s 20th renewal by Jorge Navarro, who entered 16 horses in the nine Claiming Crown races on the openingday program of the 2018-19 Gulfstream Championship meet.

Navarro’s powerful contingent includes three prime contenders for the $200,000 Jewel – defending champion Flowers for Lisa, likely favorite Aztec Sense, and Zulu.

“I’d watch Maker win all those races on Claiming Crown Day over the years and think to myself, ‘That’s got to be fun to have that much success on a day like that,’ ” Navarro said. “I think the program is really neat for the claiming guys, both trainers and especially the owners, who don’t have the chance to win stakes races but can still run for big money on a day like this.”

Navarro said he started looking for the “right horses” for this year’s Claiming Crown almost from the moment last year’s card ended.

“I’ve gotten plenty of phone calls, both from existing owners and new clients, asking me to look for horses who would be competitive on the Claiming Crown card,” Navarro said. “And we’ve been pointing for this for a while, protecting the horses we knew we had for these races.”

Flowers for Lisa was Navarro’s only winner on the 2017 Claiming Crown program, leading throughout to capture the Jewel as a 16-1 outsider. Aztec Sense was one of several horses Navarro had compromised by bad trips earlier on the card, finishing fourth in the seven-furlong Rapid Transit following a poor start. He has not lost since, having won seven races in a row coming into Saturday’s Jewel.

Navarro will have more than 80 horses stabled locally this winter, nearly 50 at Palm Meadows and another 34 he plans to ship into Gulfstream Park West on Friday. Navarro has finished second in the standings behind perennial leader Todd Pletcher in each of the last three Gulfstream Park Championship meets.

“Todd is the man around here in the winter, but we’re going to try our best to beat him this year,” Navarro said. “I’m looking forward to getting off to a big start, not only Saturday in the Claiming Crown, but with a lot of horses we’re sitting on with great conditions for the first condition book.”

Among the horses Navarro will be shipping to Gulfstream West on Friday is X Y Jet, who has been on the farm for the past month after being declared out of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint less than a week before the race.

“We got behind with him trying to make the Sprint, and you just can’t work a horse like that every week trying to catch up,” Navarro said. “He just can’t take that kind of pounding. So we decided to shut him down at that point, and I think we made the right decision. He’s had the saddle off and just been swimming the past month. We’ll try to get him ready for the Sunshine Millions Sprint in January, with making the Dubai Golden Shaheen one more time the main goal at the moment.”

X Y Jet finished second in the 2018 Golden Shaheen, caught in the final strides by Mind Your Biscuits.

Maker will counter Navarro’s threesome with a trio of his own in the nine-furlong Jewel – Bad Student, Capital Letters, and Race Me Home. Also in the field are the Robertino Diodorotrained duo of Chris and Dave and St. Louie Guy, Rich Daddy, The Scotsman, Prince Tito, and Unbridled Holiday.

The Jewel will be the finale on Saturday’s 11-race program, which begins at 11:50 a.m. Eastern.

◗ Kukulkan, the marquee name on the Clasico Internacional del Caribe card a week from Saturday, galloped a mile from the seven-eighths pole in 1:49.20 shortly after 10 a.m. here Wednesday, with his middle half-mile to the wire in 50.63 seconds. Kukulkan, a winner of all 13 career starts, will be the overwhelming favorite in the main event, the $300,000 Clasico de Caribe for 3-year-olds, a race won last year by his stablemate Jala Jala.

Other potential starters for the Clasico Internacional card to work on a blustery and unseasonably cool Wednesday morning at Gulfstream included Going Strong, four furlongs in 47.10; Magno, fiveeighths from the gate in 1:02.40; Tati, a half-mile from the gate in 50.45; and Salmiana, four furlongs from the wire in 51.11.