With increasing frequency, American horses who ship for a race on the Dubai World Cup card don’t get the long post-Dubai rest they used to. Take Super Chow. He ran below his best form April 5, checking in ninth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen, but was back on the work tab May 11 and is back racing Monday at Monmouth in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector.
The Mr. Prospector, carded at six furlongs on dirt for older horses as the last of eight races, drew seven entrants and came up solid. Also entered is Dean Delivers, unraced since November but an eight-length winner of the 2024 Mr. Prospector; Buccherino, second last September at Parx Racing in the Grade 2 Gallant Bob, an age-restricted dirt sprint, and a solid allowance winner in his lone start this season; and Subrogate, the fastest horse in the race on Beyer Figures but making his first start since July 27.
Super Chow as a 3-year-old of 2023 turned in two moderate minor-stakes showings at Monmouth, the last time he raced at the track where he trains with Jorge Delgado, but the horse didn’t peak until 2024. Super Chow, during the first part of his 4-year-old campaign won three graded sprints, the last in the Maryland Sprint on May 18, but failed to maintain that form through summer and autumn. In February, returning from a two-month break, he won the $125,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint, a performance that connections decided merited a Middle East excursion. That didn’t end well, but at his standard 2024 performance level, Super Chow fits.
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Dean Delivers was moved into the barn of trainer Ned Allard last year and won four in a row, bookended by the Mr. Prospector and another Monmouth stakes, the Sept. 1 Rumson. Even while putting together victories Dean Delivers produced declining speed figures. In September he was a distant third in the Vosburgh, in November a dull seventh in the Fall Highweight. Who knows if he ever returns to his peak.
Buccherino probably hasn’t hit his, and unlike his older rivals, he improved through the end of his 2024 campaign. Buccherino might have tired late in his comeback race on May 5, and post 7 suits a horse who likes to show pressing and stalking pace.
Subrogate showed talent from the start, and as a son of Arrogate, was assumed to be a route horse in the making, but after fading two-turn tries to end his 3-year-old season, Subrogate found his niche sprinting last year. He won three in a row in New York, hitting 99, then 106 on the Beyer scale before sliding sharply when sixth in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga, his most recent start.
“He looked a little cooked in the Vanderbilt and had a little quarter crack,” said Jorge Duarte, who trains Subrogate for Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables. “It was one of those things, you’re coming toward the end of the year – are you going to run through the winter or give him a break?”
Duarte opted for the break. Subrogate drew the rail Monday, Sonny Leon named to ride. Duarte said the horse posted a strong six-furlong breeze at Colts Necks Farm and should be set for a representative performance. His last race came months before Super Chow in Dubai. Subrogate might still be ready.
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