Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Heart to Heart’s third place could be tune-up for Canadian
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In the glass-is-half-empty, glass-is-half-full department, credit trainer Brian Lynch with taking the latter approach the morning after Heart to Heart’s troubled third-place finish as the even-money favorite in Saturday’s Tropical Park Turf Stakes.
Heart to Heart threw his head back, giving jockey Julien Leparoux a pretty good shot in the face, when leaving the starting gate for the Tropical Turf. He then rated off the early leaders and made a big five-wide run to take command at midstretch before succumbing to late surges from race winner Doctor Mounty and runner-up Your Only Man. He was beaten just a length, despite the unlucky trip.
“He gets a little fidgety in the gate, and when the horse on his inside got fidgety too, it caused him to flip his old head up and bang Julien in the nose when they kicked it,” Lynch said. “But after that, he kind of showed a new dimension. Sometimes he just gives up when things don’t go his way, as was the case here last year, when he reared up at the start of Fort Lauderdale.
“This time, he kind of relaxed and made a nice move to put himself in the race before just emptying out a little bit there at the end.”
Lynch said going in he felt Heart to Heart “might be a work away from his best” while making his first start since the Shadwell Turf Mile more than three months earlier.
“In a perfect world, I’d have liked to have gotten another nice three-quarters into him before he started, so all things considered, I thought he ran pretty well yesterday,” Lynch said. “You could tell this morning he ran hard. He had himself a good laydown this morning, but everything looks like he came out of the race just fine, and I’m thinking the Canadian could fall nicely into play for him later in the meet.”
The Grade 3 Canadian will be decided at a mile over the turf here March 2.
Code of Honor ready to work
Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who sent out Doctor Mounty to upset the Tropical Turf, was upbeat Saturday about Code of Honor, who was disappointing fourth as the odds-on favorite a week earlier while making his muchanticipated 3-year-old debut in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes. Code of Honor is back at Payson Park training center in Indiantown, Fla.
“He came back fine. I was up there [Saturday] morning, and he’s doing well,” McGaughey said. “I was disappointed in the race, but in truth, I wasn’t all together surprised. The work before Johnny [Velazquez] worked him the final time, he worked good, but the girl didn’t gallop him out far enough, and maybe he didn’t get enough out of it.
“He’s not a big horse, and I was afraid to really pump into him since he’s been away for a while. The track was also tiring on the day of the race, and to tell the truth, he’s the kind of horse who probably wants to be a little farther back and make one sweeping move, even though he won his first race on the lead.”
McGaughey said he plans to work Code of Honor this week, with the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2 likely next on his schedule.
Maximus Mischief eager
Another top 3-year-old prospect stabled locally, the undefeated Maximus Mischief, turned in his first work Saturday since shipping to South Florida following his impressive victory in the Grade 2 Remsen. He went four furlongs in a swift 46.97 seconds here, despite flipping leads near the sixteenth pole and looking around quite a bit down the stretch.
“I had planned to work him Sunday, but I had to move it up a day because he’s been so keen,” trainer Butch Reid Jr. said. “He was so sharp Friday that I needed to let him blow off some steam. I thought the work went very well. He got to fooling around a little through the stretch and jumping shadows.
“He also has a habit of leaning right in on the rail, so the rider just allowed him to switch his leads there. He did the same thing right before the wire in the Remsen. But he won’t do that kind of stuff with other horses around him.”
Reid said he plans to work Maximus Mischief in company next week with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard. Ortiz is scheduled to replace Maximus Mischief’s regular rider, Frankie Pennington, when he makes his 3-yearold debut a week from Saturday in the Grade 2 Holy Bull.
Something Awesome works
The Gulfstream Park main track was upgraded from muddy to good during training hours Sunday, and despite the wet conditions the work tab was extensive. It included Something Awesome, who is prepping for the $9 million Pegasus World Cup.
With jockey Edgar Prado aboard, Something Awesome broke off at the five-furlong pole with stablemate Golden Noguez, was allowed to drop several lengths behind nearing the half-mile marker, angled wide into the stretch, and could not make up the ground when set down out near the middle of the track.
Something Awesome finished about a length back of his target after completing the distance over the then-muddy and somewhat gluey surface in 1:02.54.
Something Awesome, an Adena Springs homebred, scored his biggest win last spring with an upset of the Charles Town Classic under Prado for trainer Jose Corrales.