HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – If trainer David Fawkes feels snakebit when it comes to post-position draws here of late, who could blame him? Fawkes entered three horses on Friday’s card at Gulfstream Park, and they all drew post 1, including Pure Class, who will break from the rail for a fourth consecutive start and for the fifth time in his last six outings.
Pure Class is in the afternoon’s main event, a $58,000 allowance and optional-claiming dash going six furlongs for older horses on the main track. The race has a field of seven that includes the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained duo of likely favorite Mish and Practically Dark; Souper Quest and Street Earnings from the barn of trainer Mark Casse; Speak Easy; and Chrome Ghost.
Pure Class won the same condition here four weeks ago when prompting the early running before edging clear to a two-length victory over tepid favorite Steppe. The win was the second in seven starts this season for Pure Class, who was stakes-placed over a sloppy track in the Benny the Bull Handicap during the summer meet.
“Can you believe it, drawing the rail four straight times with this horse? I’m actually considering not running him Friday since there is another race in the book going 6 1/2 furlongs in two weeks,” Fawkes said. “He was able to overcome the post last time because Emisael [Jaramillo] put him in the race early. The previous start he got back a little too far and had too much ground to make up.”
The 8-year-old stakes winner Mish has a win, two seconds, and a third competing exclusively in this category in his last five starts dating back to the fall of 2024. He has been idle since finishing third in March after setting a hotly contested pace as the 2-1 choice.
Joseph will bring Practically Dark back off an even longer layoff, dating to December 2024 when he finished a distant seventh in a higher-priced allowance and optional-claiming dash at Churchill Downs. He has trained forwardly in preparation for his return, although he has just one published work since posting a bullet half-mile in an eye-catching 45.80 seconds here Oct. 9.
Souper Quest, also coming off an extended vacation, figures to contest the early pace with Mish but will be making his first career start on dirt after having posted four wins from 13 previous turf outings.
Nice matchup
Friday’s co-featured seventh race is restricted to Florida-breds going 5 1/2 furlongs on the Tapeta course but figures to draw plenty of interest with Rezasrolex and Gabaldon among the eight entrants.
Rezasrolez has won six races in a row and eight of his last nine with each of those victories coming against starter-allowance competition over the Tapeta.
Gabaldon, who has never raced on a synthetic track, registered his only career victory in his debut when upsetting the 2024 Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes as a stepping-stone to a second-place finish the following month in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot. He has started only three times since but did earn a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure returning from a lengthy hiatus to finish second when facing statebreds for the first time in his most recent start.
Reef Runner may go in Janus
Fawkes said Reef Runner exited his fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in good order and could make one more start this season in the five-furlong Janus Stakes on Dec. 20.
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Reef Runner has come a long way since finishing a late-striding third in the 2024 Janus, having captured the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita as a prelude to the Breeders’ Cup. He also crossed the finish line first by a nose over Motorious in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap this summer at Del Mar only to be disqualified in a controversial decision for alleged interference after the start.
“I was thrilled with the race in the Sprint, unfortunately there was no pace in the race other than the winner” Shesospicy, Fawkes lamented. “He made his run but just ran out of racetrack.”
Fawkes said Reef Runner, a homebred son of The Big Beast owned by Alex and JoAnn Lieblong, was like a different horse after he gelded him last spring.
“We gave him 60 days on the farm after he was gelded and he came back like a different animal, like a man instead of a boy with a much more balanced stride,” Fawkes said. “The goal now is to try to make him a Florida-bred millionaire, and if he could win one more before the end of the year it could put him in the running to be named Florida-bred horse of the year.”
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