Pletcher to keep local string; sends out Roman Empire

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher closed down his winter headquarters at the Palm Beach Downs training center earlier this week. But the future Hall of Fame horseman will still have a major presence during the remainder of the spring-summer session after transferring a large contingent down the turnpike to stable at Gulfstream Park with longtime assistant Anthony Sciametta over the next several months, including Roman Empire, among the key contenders in Sunday’s co-featured sixth race.

After having his unprecedented streak of 15 consecutive Gulfstream Park championship meet training titles snapped a year ago, Pletcher rebounded to take the title again this past winter, holding a 48-41 edge over runner-up Mike Maker. And he is in a battle with Maker and Saffie Joseph Jr. for the spring-summer crown, trailing Joseph 22-21 heading into Friday’s card.

“We just decided consolidating a number of horses at Gulfstream for the summer was our best option under the present circumstances,” said Pletcher, who returned to New York himself Tuesday.

“We’ve got about 50 horses there now, a little mix of everything, including 2-year-olds, some Florida-breds, and some allowance horses. We left what we felt would fit there for the time being. We’ll just see how things go while always having the option of switching some of these horses out with others currently in New York.”

Pletcher said he is pretty much playing things as he goes along due to all the uncertainties created these past few months by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s not much we can do but try to remain flexible,” Pletcher said. “Normally, we would have shifted a lot of our Palm Beach Downs horses to Keeneland and Saratoga by the end of April, early May, and last year we also had a string at Monmouth Park. But the longer we went without being able to move any horses around, the less sense it made to ship a lot of horses to New Jersey when they could stay and run in similar races down here.”

Roman Empire will likely go postward the favorite in Sunday’s sixth event, one of two $47,000 optional-claiming races on the card. Carded for statebreds at a mile over the main track, the race drew a

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field of seven that also includes No Getting Over Me, trained by Joseph, along with trainer Ralph Nicks’s Grainger County.

Roman Empire is coming off a second-place effort going 1 1/16 miles under similar conditions four weeks earlier, chasing home the 6-5 Wild Medagliad’Oro, who got away with a relatively soft early pace. Roman Empire finished a length in front of No Getting Over Me for the runner-up award. The effort earned Roman Empire a career-best 81 Beyer Speed Figure.

Grainger County withstood a race-long pace battle to edge away to a 1 1/2-length triumph, launching his career going six furlongs on May 7. The son of Fort Loudon will try to stretch his speed to a mile Sunday while faced with the prospect of receiving an early challenge from the speedy Ingreido.

In sharp contrast to 3-yearolds Roman Empire, No Getting Over Me, and Grainger County, the lineup also includes the 10-year-old veteran Gray Beau, a nine-time winner who captured a similar allowance test for statebreds in his 2020 debut Jan. 3.

Casino to open Thursday

Gulfstream Park on Thursday will reopen its casino, shuttered for the past three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The newly redesigned casino floor will be open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, with strict safety protocols to be observed.

In addition, the Ten Palms dining room, overlooking the track on the second floor of the grandstand, will reopen next Friday, June 19, on a reservation-only basis. All other areas of the track will remain closed to the general public until further notice.

◗ Jockey Cristian Torres began riding without the benefit of a five-pound apprentice allowance for the first time Friday after losing his bug two days earlier and wasted little time getting into the winner’s circle after guiding Lord Adare to victory in the sixth race. Torres, who was named aboard seven mounts in his first day as a journeyman, won 175 races during his apprenticeship and is currently eighth in the standings with 20 victories at the meet.