Trainer Victor Barboza Jr. believes the Chilean-bred Capitan Danny will improve going two turns and he appears to have found a nice spot to find out if he’s right.
Barboza, based at Gulfstream Park, will ship Capitan Danny to Tampa Bay Downs for Wednesday’s first-level allowance/optional $16,000 claiming race going one mile and 40 yards around two turns.
Barboza raced Capitan Danny four times in one-turn mile races at Gulfstream Park last spring and early summer. The son of Mendelssohn had two seconds and two fourth-place finishes.
Barboza shipped Capitan Danny to Saratoga for a two-turn race but the horse developed a fever and was not entered. He shipped back to South Florida and in his first start off a five-month layoff, once again in a one-turn mile race, finished fourth behind odds-on favorite Accelerize, who could make his next start in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper on Jan. 24 at Gulfstream.
“I think the horse needs two turns,” Barboza said. “This is the perfect race for the horse. The horse won in Peru going long and I think the horse is full of stamina.”
Barboza is 1 for 1 at Tampa this meet, the winner coming with a horse stretching out from a sprint to a two-turn race.
Cipriano Gil, the fourth-leading rider at the meet with 13 wins from 76 mounts, rides Capitan Danny from post 4 in an eight-horse field.
Michael Simone sends out the 8-year-old gelding The Best Distance in this spot following a $10,000 claim he made just one week ago. The Best Distance won that race by 7 1/4 lengths as well as an $8,000 claimer on Dec. 27 at Tampa by 10 lengths. The Best Distance is a 12-time winner from 58 starts and gets the services of second-leading rider Samy Camacho.
Trainer Teresa Pompay has entered the uncoupled pair of Bridoza and La Frost. Bridoza is coming off a two-length maiden win going six furlongs here on Nov. 29. La Frost won at first asking going six furlongs at Monmouth Park in August before finishing fourth in his first try against winners on Dec. 10.
Sonny Leon, the third-leading rider at the meet, won aboard both horses but is on Bridoza on Wednesday. Chris Landeros rides La Frost.
Just Beat the Odds to Saudi
Just Beat the Odds, winner of the Grade 3 Elite Power Stakes at Aqueduct in December, has accepted an invitation to run in the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, trainer Gregg Sacco said.
Just Beat the Odds has been based at Tampa Bay where on Saturday he worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds, his second work since winning the Elite Power.
Sacco said the fact neither Book’em Danno nor Bentornato, two of the top sprinters in North America, are headed to Saudi and the way his horse is training “made the choice a little easier on our end,” Sacco said. “He’s doing super. We look forward to going and then hitting the New York campaign in midsummer.”
Though his campaign has had its stops and starts, Just Beat the Odds has won three of his last four starts. He came off an eight-month layoff to win the Elite Power by 2 3/4 lengths, earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He’s all there for us,” Sacco said. “He’s a mature 6-year-old, lightly raced, he had a few issues that look like are behind him. He came out of the Elite Power in great shape, we decided to bring him down here so as not to go against the weather up there.”
Meanwhile, Sacco said Crazy Mason, last year’s Grade 2 Carter Stakes winner who finished third in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 6, is about two weeks away from returning to him at Tampa. Sacco said Crazy Mason is at a farm in Ocala and depending how quickly he comes to hand could be a candidate to try the Carter again.
Sacco has also recently taken over the training of Nutella Fella, the Grade 1 Hopeful winner in 2023. Nutella Fella, previously trained by Gary Contessa, finished seventh in an allowance/optional $100,000 claiming race at Tampa on Nov. 28. Sacco said Nutella Fella has since undergone a throat procedure to clear an issue up and could return in an allowance race later this month in Florida.
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