A flurry of stakes racing populates the April 2 closing day card at Gulfstream Park beginning in race 5 with the Grade 3, $150,000 Skipaway Stakes as a field of six older horses will contest the mile and one eighth event on the main track.
Valid is the even money favorite on the morning line despite his preference for racing at a flat mile. The Marcus Vitali trainee was roughed up in his last start, nearly falling to his knees after being bumped hard in the stretch during the running of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap. The six year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro may have been a winner last out if not for the trouble, but had to settle for third following the disqualification of Anchor Down. Valid may be more effective going shorter, but the gutsy gelding has been effective at the mile and an eighth trip, including a recent second-place finish to multiple graded stakes winner Mshawish in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap.
Savoy Stump (3/1) will likely need to continue his upward mobility to factor against the likes of Valid. The Todd Pletcher trainee won a March 16 allowance race at a mile and a sixteenth with a 92 Beyer Speed Figure, but steps up in class and tackles another sixteenth of a mile. The improving four year-old colt would likely need the favorite to run out of gas in the stretch in order to pull the upset.
Team Colors (7/2) is a more interesting choice while racing on fast dirt for the first time in his career. The four year-old of Street Cry is out of an A.P. Indy mare - a pedigree tailor-made for dirt racing - but has raced exclusively on turf with the exception of a muddy track score last out in a January 17 allowance race at Gulfstream. The workouts for his return are swift and this guy looks to be the main danger.
Royal Ascot is one of the greatest race meets in the world, and there is no race as historic or exciting during the meet than the Gold Cup (G1)! First run in 1807, it is one of the premier races for stayers in the world. The two-and-a-half-mile turf race offers a rich £500,000 purse, and it drew ten of the world’s best long-distance horses.
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of the most important races of the Royal Ascot meeting! With a £1 million purse, the race is one of the richest of the entire week, and it also offers its winner a guaranteed berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
The 2022 Belmont Stakes, which will be run on Saturday, June 11, drew an exciting field of eight to compete for $1.5 million and a place in horse racing immortality. Several familiar New York horses will line up for the race, including Wood Memorial (G2) winner Mo Donegal and Peter Pan (G3) winner We the People.
The best horses in the older dirt male division line up for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup on Saturday, January 29 at Gulfstream Park! The race is at a mile and an eighth on the main track, an intermediate distance that draws both Classic runners and milers alike. Nine horses have passed the entry box, and are ready for a thrilling renewal of the winter’s biggest race!
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