For all Nobals has accomplished on turf, with multiple graded stakes wins, including the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, trainer Larry Rivelli feels grass is not the gelding’s favorite surface.
“Truth be known, even though he won the Breeders’ Cup on the turf, I think he’s probably a better horse on the [synthetic],” Rivelli said.
Nobals is stepping back onto a track he loves for Saturday night’s $125,000 Big Daddy Stakes on Turfway Park’s Tapeta. The Big Daddy is a six-furlong sprint for which Rivelli said there is “no excuse.”
“I expect him to run huge,” Rivelli said. “I mean, he’s training great, he doesn’t have to go anywhere.”
On synthetic tracks, 6-year-old millionaire Nobals has won six of nine outings and has only finished worse than second once. He has wins in the 2022 Turfway Prevue and Animal Kingdom Stakes locally.
After his Breeders’ Cup win, Nobals lost three races on turf to open 2024. A switch to a synthetic track got him back in the win column, as he won the Grade 2 Kennedy Road at Woodbine over Canadian champion Patches O’Houlihan. A trip to Hong Kong followed, but Nobals developed a fever after shipping and was scratched from the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint.
Nobals returned to action Jan. 25 in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, and was beaten two lengths while seventh.
“I think he just didn’t care for the track,” Rivelli said. “He doesn’t like a sandy, sandy-based track at all. E.T. Baird, who rides him a lot, said he was just spinning his wheels for the first half-mile of the race. He finished up good.”
For the Big Daddy, Nobals is reunited with another regular rider, Gerardo Corrales, who has piloted him to several stakes wins, including the Breeders’ Cup. They are part of a field of six that could be reduced by one, depending on what Rivelli chooses to do with millionaire stablemate One Timer, a Grade 2-winning turf sprinter and stakes winner on synthetic.
One Timer was most recently third in the Holiday Cheer in December at Turfway behind Grade 1 winner Howard Wolowitz. Rivelli was contemplating running One Timer in an allowance race next week at Turfway.
Millionaire Arrest Me Red, a multiple graded stakes winner sprinting on turf, comes to the Big Daddy for Wesley Ward off a layoff. He has not raced since winning back-to-back allowance-level turf sprints last year in Kentucky. He defeated One Timer in August at Kentucky Downs and fellow graded stakes winner Mo Stash in October at Keeneland.
Arrest Me Red made two starts at Turfway last year, with an allowance win and a runner-up effort in the Forego.
Mischievous Rogue was a minor stakes winner at Hawthorne last year over One Timer. He is coming off a runner-up effort to local stakes winner Epic Ride in an allowance/optional-claiming race Feb. 23 at Turfway.
Pure Panic is coming off an allowance/optional-claiming win at Turfway. Longshot One for My Brother, who has been on the board in three straight claiming races locally, completes the field.
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