Venezuelan Hug set to jump into Grade 1

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Danny Gargan was very confident Venezuelan Hug would handle the jump from Floridabred company into a graded race. Now he’s hoping the gray colt will be equally successful going from a Grade 3 into one of the most visible Grade 1 turf races in America.

Gargan said the Grade 1, $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs is the next stop for Venezuelan Hug, whose victory in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf was one of numerous interesting developments on the Fountain of Youth card Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Ridden by Junior Alvarado, Venezuelan Hug paid $11 and earned a career-high 96 Beyer Figure in capturing the 1 1/16-mile Canadian Turf by a neck over Olympic Runner.

“He trained great into it, and I really liked him,” said Gargan, a Louisville, Ky., native. “If he comes out of this race as well as he was doing before, we’ll take him to Churchill.”

The 1 1/8-mile Old Forester will garner a lot of attention as the race that directly precedes the Kentucky Derby on May 1.

Venezuelan Hug, by Constitution, now has won six of eight starts since Gargan claimed him for $40,000 nearly a year ago for Spedale Family Racing and Randy Hill. The colt was coming off back-to-back wins in Florida-bred races before the Canadian, ending with the Jan. 16 Sunshine Turf at Gulfstream.

These are heady times for Gargan, who is winning at a 38 percent clip since early December. His stable is split between Gulfstream, where he entered the week with an 18-for-47 record at the championship meet, and New York, where he is 5 for 14 at the Aqueduct winter meet.

Gargan scratched his stable star Tax from the Grade 2 Gulfstream Mile on Saturday with the original intention of running him this Saturday in the $100,000 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs, but he said Monday he is more likely to send Tax to Oaklawn Park for the $500,000 Essex on March 13 instead. Gargan claimed Tax for $50,000 from a maiden race in October 2018, and the gelding has now earned $982,060.

Prevalence looking for a spot

Prevalence, the Godolphin homebred who was withheld from a race last week at Gulfstream, could make his second career start in the coming days following a quick recovery from a minor illness. Prevalence breezed a half-mile in 48.40 seconds Saturday at the Palm Meadows training center.

Trainer Brendan Walsh said before leaving Tuesday for California, where on Saturday he will run Maxfield in the Santa Anita Handicap, that he hopes to run Prevalence in a firstlevel allowance in time to make a Kentucky Derby points qualifier.

“If everything goes right, we’d still have time,” said Walsh. “It’d be tight, but yes, it’s possible.”

Gulfstream has a one-turnmile allowance for 3-year-olds in the condition book for March 11. The final Derby points qualifiers are April 10.

Prevalence, by Medaglia d’Oro, earned an 89 Beyer in winning his lone start by 8 1/2 lengths, a Jan. 23 maiden race going seven furlongs at Gulfstream. Walsh had intended to run the colt in either an allowance won Friday by Known Agenda or in the Fountain of Youth won by Greatest Honour.

Meanwhile, Walsh said one of the major filly-mare turf races in Kentucky is the likely next spot for Zofelle, whose late rally fell just a nose shy of nailing Got Stormy in the Grade 3 Honey Fox on Saturday at Gulfstream. Zofelle, a 5-year-old Irish-bred mare, earned a career-high 95 Beyer.

“She ran a cracking good race,” said Walsh.

Fearless eyes Oaklawn Cap

Fearless, a 5-year-old who scored a breakthrough victory in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Mile here Saturday, could make his next start in the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap on April 17, although that’s not yet written in stone, said Elliott Walden, president of WinStar Farm. WinStar owns Fearless with China Horse Club.

The Gulfstream Mile not only was the gelding’s first stakes win, but it also followed an eight-month layoff. Walden credited his team at WinStar in Versailles, Ky., led by Destin Heath, for having Fearless ready to roll, along with trainer Todd Pletcher.

“Todd does what Todd does,” a beaming Walden said in a post-race television interview.

The win was the fourth on the day for Pletcher, who’s well on his way to the Gulfstream training title for the 17th time in the last 18 winters. Four of his five wins between the Saturday and Sunday cards at Gulfstream came for ownership entities that included Eclipse Thoroughbreds, which also had five winners during the same time frame (Annex, trained by Bill Mott, was the other Eclipse winner).

◗ Overshadowed by the sensational 12 1/2-length romp by Collaborate in a Saturday maiden race was a workmanlike runner-up finish by the debuting Benny from the bronx, a half-brother to Charlatan. Collaborate, trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., goes next in a Kentucky Derby points qualifier, quite possibly the March 27 Florida Derby.