Chucky in career-best form

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Whether it’s a new environment or the fact he just has gotten better with age, there is little doubt Chucky is as good as he’s ever been going into Friday’s eighth race at Gulfstream Park, a one-mile allowance race restricted to Floridabreds to be run at one mile. The race is the second of two allowance events on the card, along with a five-furlong turf dash for 3-year-olds that lured only six starters but looms a far more competitive event from a handicapping standpoint.

Chucky was winless and showed virtually nothing in three starts at 2. He was idle for 10 months before finally launching his 3-year-old campaign here last fall, and won three of his first four starts on the comeback trail while trained by Jorge Delgado before ending the season with a fifth-place finish in a rapidly run allowance race on Dec. 31.

Chucky was claimed for a bargain $8,000 out of a secondplace finish in his 2022 debut on Jan. 27 while earning what was then a career-best 78 Beyer Speed Figure. He has subsequently earned Beyer Figures of 81 and 84 in the two races he’s finished for his current trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., sandwiching those efforts around an unfortunate incident on April 8, when he stumbled and lost his rider after the start. Chucky was entered against Florida-breds for the first time that day and came back against similar competition to finish second, beaten a neck by Tapsasional, following a near race-long pace duel with the winner. He also was trying two turns for the first time in that race.

Chucky will turn back to one turn as the heavy favorite on Friday while getting a break in weight from the majority of the field with seven-pound apprentice Ailsa Morrison aboard for the second consecutive race.

Both Roan Mountain and Ampersand chased Chucky home when the trio met three weeks earlier, finishing fifth and seventh, and they face him again on Friday.

Roan Mountain has been a major disappointment since arriving locally from Parx, where he held his own with open company. He has finished fifth in his two starts here, both against seemingly easier statebred competition.

Septemberten returns with Florida-breds after finishing an even sixth in a rapidly run seven-furlong dash for open $35,000 claimers just two weeks ago. A four-time winner, Septemberten will stretch to a mile for the first time since posting an 82 Beyer finishing second facing $30,000 starter allowance foes almost 14 months earlier.

A legitimate case can be made for most of the six starters in the afternoon’s third race, with Always Gambling likely to go postward a tepid choice after finishing fourth following a slow start in the Roar Stakes. That effort that came on the heels of a highpriced optional-claiming and starter-allowance win several weeks earlier.

Nerve doesn’t have the Beyer power of some of the others but could stand some catching if away alertly from the rail. Nerve makes just his second start of the season. The stakestested duo of Trikitraki and Trust Daddy also demand respect.