Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
FLORIDA VACATION
FIRENZE FIRE HEADS FOR SUNNY CLIMES IN MR. PROSPECTOR,
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Heavy rain that fell two weeks earlier and a thousand miles away has helped transform Saturday’s Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park into a Grade 1-caliber race, ultimately producing a full, 12-horse field that includes the third-, sixth-, and ninth-place finishers from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint along with Grade 1 winner Mind Control.
The six-furlong Mr. Prospector highlights an 11-race program that also features the $100,000 Via Borghese for fillies and mares on the turf along with a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 jackpot which, as of Thursday, had not been hit since the meet began on Dec. 2.
Both Firenze Fire and Mind Control had been entered in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 5 but were scratched due to the sloppy conditions that afternoon at Aqueduct.
Firenze Fire rallied to finish third, beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Whitmore but only a neck for second money despite a little traffic issue in early stretch, in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. In his previous start, Firenze Fire rallied to an impressive victory in the Vosburgh Invitational, his second Grade 2 win of the season along with the True North three months earlier, both those tallies coming at Belmont Park.
Firenze Fire’s only two subpar races in 2020 came over wet tracks, a distant fourthplace finish in the Grade 1 Carter and a well-beaten 11th-place effort in the Forego at Saratoga, a race run under horrific weather conditions. Although he has made 30 career starts, the Mr. Prospector will be his first local appearance.
“I really wanted to run him in the Cigar, but we felt we had to do what was best for the horse, knowing had we run him on the wet track he probably wouldn’t have had a fair chance,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “Fortunately, we had time to get him down here and time to get a work in once we did. So for a Plan B, I think it’s a pretty good Plan B. It’s a big field, which surprised me a bit, but he’s got a good post, Irad [Ortiz] back in the irons, and the horse is doing well, he’s ready. I can’t wait for Saturday.”
Mind Control also ran poorly in the wet conditions in both the Carter and Forego, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively, while beaten double-digit lengths on both occasions. He began the season with back-toback Grade 3 victories at Aqueduct in the Toboggan and Tom Fool Handicap and was third in the Grade 1 Alfred Vanderbilt at Saratoga, although he is coming off a very disappointing performance, finishing a tiring ninth in the Lafayette at Keeneland.
“It’s been a bit of a hard-luck year,” said Gregg Sacco, who trains Mind Control, winner of the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens at 3. “He started out the year super and then COVID hit. The Carter got pushed back and he hit the slop. He hates the slop. He ran super in the Vanderbilt and we were back on track and then hit the slop again [in the Forego]. In the race at Keeneland, a horse gave way right in front of him and Johnny [Velazquez] had to snatch him up.”
Diamond Oops, sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, returns to defend the title he won a year ago when rallying to a one-length victory over Lasting Legacy in the 2019 Mr. Prospector. The win was his fifth in eight starts over the Gulfstream Park main track. A Grade 2 winner on both turf and dirt this season, Diamond Oops lost his best chance when hung very wide around the turn in the Breeders’ Cup, a fate that also befell him and led to an eighthplace finish a year earlier in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Lasting Legacy also got trapped extremely wide before finishing ninth in the Breeders’
Cup Sprint. Claimed for $80,000 two starts back, Lasting Legacy will be going from one extreme to another post position wise Saturday, drawing the rail after having broken from post 14 in the Sprint.
Other key contenders in the loaded Mr. Prospector field include Cool Arrow, Haikal, Majestic Dunhill, and Sleepy Eyes Todd.
The locally based Cool Arrow completed a three-race win streak here this summer with a popular victory in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint.
Haikal, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham at 3, makes his first start since being transferred to Todd Pletcher’s barn, and his first since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile 10 months earlier.
Majestic Dunhill won the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap over a muddy track at Belmont Park during the fall, while the versatile Sleepy Eyes Todd sandwiched victories in the 1 1/8-mile, Grade 2 Charles Town Classic and seven-furlong Lafayette around a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita.
Court Return off sharp effort
The 1 3/16-mile Via Borghese lured nine starters topped by Court Return, who finished second, beaten a neck by Etoile, in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine, and the rapidly improving Traipsing, second, less than a length behind the heavy favorite Mutamakina in the Grade 3 Long Island at Aqueduct after making all the pace.
They’ll face a lineup that includes the Todd Pletchertrained pair of Grade 2 winners Always Shopping and Cap de Creus, as well as Gun Society, Kelsey’s Cross, Cambeliza, Lady Panda, and Great Island.