Turf News

It only took 10 seconds for the stewards to put up the inquiry sign following the fourth race at Mahoning Valley yesterday.

Watch Your Step, who had led every step of the way in the race at a mile and 70 yards, crossed the finish line 1 1/4 lengths in front of Weber, the greatly improved Handsome Mike gelding. But Watch Your Step interfered with Weber so many times in the stretch, the stewards may have set a record for taking the shortest time to announce a disqualification.

Watch Your Step, a 19-1 shot, shot out of the gate and took an easy lead while Weber was settling into fourth place on the rail with David Haldar. There were no challenges to the pacesetter down the backstretch, and it was left up to Weber to go after Watch Your Step on the turn. In the stretch, as Weber tried to get by, Watch Your Step bore out into the gelding several times, and taking him down was an easy decision.

Weber, a 4-year-old Indiana-bred who was blanked in his first 13 starts for owner/breeder/trainer Michelle Elliott, is now 3-1-1 in his last seven. He paid $12.40.

Our Fantasy became the first $100,000 earner for Amira’s Prince yesterday with a decisive victory in a one-mile race at Gulfstream Park.

Our Fantasy stalked the early pace while four wide under Tyler Gaffalione, move up to third coming to the final turn, and took the lead at the quarter pole. She then proved to be easily best in the lane, winning by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:37.29 for the mile.

The improving 4-year-old filly bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon has won two in a row and three of her last four, boosting her record to 4-3-1 in 14 starts. The winner’s check for $26,400 raised her earnings to $102,310. She was a $50,000 OBS April 2-year-old in 2019.

One day after notching two route winners, Treasure Beach added a third yesterday when Optimistic scored a convincing wire-to-wire victory in a one-mile race over a sloppy race track at Delta Downs.

Optimistic hadn’t been able to break his maiden while racing in Florida, but he took care of that detail in his first try in Cajun country. With Tim Thornton aboard, the 4-year-old gelding bred by Leverett and Linda Miller and Adam and Suzette Parker rocketed to the lead from the No. 10 post and by the time he reached the half in :47.86, had stretched his margin to five lengths. The closest anybody got was when Florida-bred Gaspergou came within two non-threatening lengths on the final turn. The final margin was 2 1/4.

Optimistic paid $4.80 as favorite and earned a check for $6,000, while getting Treasure Beach his seventh winner of 2021.

Treasure Beach added a pair of maiden-breaking winners on the turf yesterday, one coming at a mile and one-sixteenth and the other at a flat mile, and the son of Galileo leads the top 25 Florida sires in the “average winning distance” category. He has an AWD of 8.42 furlongs, nearly a furlong better than the current runner-up.

Cool O Toole was the 1 1/16-mile winner at Tampa Bay Downs, coming from eighth place at the half-mile pole, making a strong run on the inside on the final turn. and splitting horses at the top of the stretch. She then held off four others to the wire to score by half a length. The 3-year-filly bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon won in her fifth start, paying $14.40 and earning a check for $9,740. She was clocked in 1:46.46 for the trip under Tomas Mejia.

At Gulfstream Park, Treasure Run scored a major upset for owner/co-breeder Jody Veitch. The 5-year-old gelding went wire-to-wire with Marcos Meneses, winning by two lengths over 2-1 favorite Big Perm, and paying a juicy $53.20. His initial victory went in 1:36.76 for the mile and was worth $14,100.

The duo became winners five and six for Treasure Beach this year.

Gulfstream Park track announcer Pete Aiello is one of the best in the business when it comes to innovative stretch calls, and he added to his long list in Sunday’s second race, just hours before the Super Bowl kickoff in Tampa.

As Just Like Mike and Irad Ortiz Jr. were annihilating the field while looking like Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes, Aiello entertained his vast audience with, “Just Like Mike can take a knee . . . and run out the clock.” And that’s just what the son of Handsome Mike did, winning the one-mile race by 16 1/2 lengths, and if they had gone another sixteenth it could have been 31.

It was only the third start in the career of the 5-year-old horse bred by Mary K. Haire, who was a $47,000 OBS June 2-year-old in 2018. But he never started at two or three for owners David and Teresa Palmer, finally making his career debut at four on July 5 of last year and finishing seventh. It was six months and five days before he went to the post again, finishing fourth on Jan. 10 after leading for half a mile.

So it was surprising to see Just Like Mike on the board at 8/5, but the bettors proved to be right on the money. Leading rider Ortiz had him sitting a stalking third down the backstretch, and when he swung Mike three wide and asked him to go on the turn, it turned into no contest in a matter of seconds. Just Like Mike became his sire’s fourth winner in the last five days, earning $11,600 for the Palmers and a 94 ‘E’ rating from Equibase, while providing another unique entry to Pete Aiello’s stretch call resume.

If ever the connections of one farm dominated a particular race it happened to Pleasant Acres in the 12th at Gulfstream Park yesterday.

The six-furlong race contested over a sloppy track was won by Lalali, a 4-year-old filly by Pleasant Acres stallion Handsome Mike who was bred by long-time partners Ed Seltzer, Beverly Anderson and Pleasant Acres owners Joe and Helen Barbazon.

Finishing second was Cookie Cove, another daughter of Handsome Mike owned and bred by long-time Pleasant Acres client Patricia Generazio, who has benefited from a slew of winners by the farm’s stallions over the years.

The third-place finisher was Miss Over There, owned by Troy Levy’s Tropical Racing, another Pleasant Acres client boasting of a good number of winners by the farm’s stallions.

Cookie Cove was right up near the lead for the entire three-quarters, while Lalali sat a comfortable fourth on the rail, and Miss Over There was content to come from off the pace. Everybody moved on the turn, and the trio was 1-2-3 heading down the stretch, with Lalali in mid-track winning by 1 3/4 lengths, and Cookie Cove second on the rail, 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Miss Over There.

Lalali earned $10,400 and raised her total to $50,280; Cookie Cove collected $3,400 and jumped to $44,990 – and both were claimed out of the race.

By the length of two noses, Handsome Mike gained his third and fourth winners of the year yesterday, Do What It takes scoring at Tampa Bay Downs and Carletta doing likewise at Delta Downs.

Do What It Takes, bred in New York by Joe and Helen Barbazon, got off fifth going seven furlongs with Antonio Gallardo in the irons, and cruised up to third on the outside on the turn. She went after the two leaders heading into the stretch but was carried very wide as they straightened out for home.

The 5-year-old mare recovered and took the lead down the lane only to be immediately chased by Exceed the Goal, who had come from last place with a bold rush. Exceed the Goal stuck her neck in front with 100 yards to go and appeared to be home, but Gallardo got into Do What It Takes and she prevailed by a nose in a close photo. She’s now 5-5-7 in 29 starts and the $7,200 check raised her earnings to $67,376.

Carletta, owned and bred by Carl D. Helmandollar, broke a string of three straight seconds at Delta Downs, getting her second victory by what Equibase called a head, but was no more than a nose. Racing five furlongs with Emanuel Nieves, she was off third from the rail, went three wide after the lead on the turn, and, in a battle of 2-1 shots, caught pace-setter Viking Voyage right on the wire. Carletta paid $6.20 and earned $7,200.

Earlier in the month, Victory Turn won at Caymanas Park in Jamaica in a race at a mile and one-sixteenth. The 5-year-old mare was bred by Joe Barbazon.

Treasure Beach closed in on $100,000 in progeny earnings for the month of January with the wire-to-wire Gulfstream Park victory of El Pillo, who became his sire’s fourth winner.

Edgard Zayas put the 4-year-old gelding on the lead in the one-mile grass race and he held off several challenges to win by a head in 1:35.78, paying $7.80 and collecting a check for $14,700. The gelding bred by Orlyana is 2-1-4 in 14 starts with earnings of $62,710.

Earlier, Beachtreasuregirl became Treasure Beach’s third winner with a 1 1/8th-mile romp at Camarero Race Track in Puerto Rico. The 5-year-old mare bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon raced well off the pace for half a mile, then made a strong outside move under Juan Diaz to take over the lead heading for home. She opened up by eight lengths in mid-stretch and won by nearly 10, paying $5.50. In the land of minute purses, she’s 3-4-4 in 23 starts with earnings of $43,343.

In her first seven career starts, Josefa was able only to muster up a lone third-place finish. After her wire-to-wire score under Junior Alvarado at Gulfstream Park yesterday, the improved 4-year-old daughter of Treasure Beach is 3-2-1 in her last eight.

At odds of 12-1, Alvarado shot Josefa to the lead from the No. 4 post in the one-mile turf race and she never looked back. The field remained close down the backstretch, but she revved it up on the turn, then easily held off the 7/5 favorite and 5/2 second choice down the stretch, winning by two lengths. The $16,500 winner’s check raised her earnings to $58,550.

Fair Grounds handicappers didn’t need to devise any complex system to determine that Complex System was the best bet on yesterday’s program.

The 4-year-old colt by Amira’s Prince drew the No. 1 post in the $45,000 maiden special going 5 1/2 furlongs, with Adam Beschizza in the irons. When a switch from the turf to the main track resulted in three scratches, Complex System was left with just three rivals and looked like a virtual cinch.

Based on his record of four seconds and a third in five previous starts at Belmont Park, Aqueduct, Saratoga and Gulfstream Park, the colt bred by Beth Bayer was sent off at odds of 1 to 2. Beschizza sent him out comfortably in third place on the rail and handled him with confidence until the field turned for home. There he angled Complex System out to mid-track and the colt ran down the two determined pace-setters late, scoring by one length, clocked in 1:05.17.

Complex System, a $200,000 OBS April purchase in 2019, became the second winner in three days for Amira’s Prince and earned a check for $27,000. That boosted his six-race total to $75,400, an average of $12,566 per race.