No Carry Back for Prince James

The six-horse field for Saturday’s co-featured Carry Back Stakes was reduced to five early Wednesday afternoon when trainer Kelsey Danner and her owners decided to scratch Prince James from the seven furlong dash for 3-year-olds.

The Carry Back was to have served as the 2020 debut for Prince James, who has been idle since finishing fifth after pressing the early pace in the Grade 2 Remsen seven months earlier.

“He’s been working well and doing well, the distance is nice, and the race was a nice spot to get him started,” Danner said prior to announcing her intention to scratch. “But we drew the one hole and I’m just not sure the timing is right either.”

Prince James was highly thought of from the start when bet down to be the 3-2 favorite despite launching his career around two turns early last fall at Monmouth Park, running to his backing by winning off by a widening 2 ½ lengths at first asking. Prince James, a son of Tiznow, subsequently finished a distant second under first level allowance and optional claiming conditions five weeks later at Churchill Downs before continuing his road tour in New York. He concluded his juvenile campaign by finishing a tiring fifth after forcing the early pace in the 1 1/8-mile Remsen Stakes.

“We gave him some time off after the Remsen to get him to mature a little bit and he’s gotten bigger and stronger since his last start,” said Danner, who currently has 40 horses stabled at the Palm Meadows training center.

“He definitely wants to go two turns. The goal is to get him to two-turn stakes this summer such as the West Virginia Derby or Pegasus at Monmouth Park although I’d like to get a race into him before we stretch him out.”

Aside from her primary stable in South Florida, Danner has a dozen horses stabled at Churchill Downs and several others in New York including Jack of Clubs, who won a maiden special weight dash for New York-breds making his turf debut a couple of weeks earlier at Belmont Park. On Wednesday she put Sunsation, a wire-to-wire, entry-level allowance winner on the turf at odds of 55-1 in his last start at Gulfstream Park, on a van bound for Delaware Park to run in the Kent Stakes this coming weekend.

The five 3-year-olds left to contest the Carry Back include the Kathy Ritvo-trained duo of Ournationonparade and Double Crown, Cajun Brother, Poe, and With Verve.

The Carry Back shares top billing on Saturday’s card along with its filly counterpart, the $75,000 Azalea, which also lured just six 3-year-old fillies with the speedy Boerne and the inform Don’t Get Khozy likely to vie for favoritism against Bankruptonthebeach, Estilo Talentoso, Addilyn and Compensate.

Saturday’s program was scheduled to include the $75,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint, which was ultimately scrapped when the race failed to fill. Mike Lakow, vice president of racing for Gulfstream Park, said Wednesday he was bringing the race back one more time for Sunday’s program.

The Umphrey closed with just 14 nominations, including the Georgina Baxter-trained pair of win machine Lady’s Island and course record holder Pay Any Price.

Friday co-features carded

Friday’s 10-race program at Gulfstream Park features a pair of optional-claiming and allowance races, both carded at a mile on the main track, the first for Florida-breds and the second for older fillies and mares. Both events offer a $47,000 purse.

Assertiko, winner of his last two starts against mid-level conditioned claiming company, might be the slight favorite in the sixth event for trainer Ron Spatz. He is one of four 3-yearolds in the field along with R U Lucky, Flash Pass, and Bahamian Prince.

On the other end of the spectrum is the 9-year-old veteran French Quarter, a winner of three of his last five starts while a popular item at the claim box. The son of Shakespeare was claimed by trainer Fausto Gutierrez for $6,250 out of an easy five-length victory at a mile on May 15 and will be seeking his 15th career win Friday.

Parx Racing invader Lil Miss Hotshot, who has finished second in five of her last six starts, including her local debut under similar conditions three weeks earlier, may be the tepid choice in the co-featured ninth race. She’ll face seven rivals, including Spatz’s Sky Chaser, who had a modest two-race winning streak ended when finishing a tiring third in her most recent outing going 6 1/2 furlongs on May 28.

◗ Tuesday’s mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6, which came on the final day of the fiscal year in Florida, returned $6,533. A total of $3,478,915 in new money was wagered into a pool that had a carryover of slightly more than $407,000.

Four of the six winners in the sequence were post-time favorites, Dinner At Five (4-5), Hero Tiger (5-2), Panarea (even money), and I’m Prayingforthat (4-5). Legs three and four were won by longshots Miss Mac ($69.80) and Allegedly Perfect ($38.60).