Just Like Mike ‘takes a knee’ in Gulfstream rout

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.