HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Comedy Town and Damon’s Mound, a couple of multiple stakes-winning Florida-breds who have enjoyed considerable success throughout their careers racing in open company, will make a rare appearance against statebreds when vying for favoritism Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $75,000 Sunshine Sprint. The six-furlong fixture shares top billing on an excellent 11-race program with the $75,000 Sunshine Turf, a race also restricted to Florida-breds to be decided at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.
Comedy Town has not raced against statebred competition since winning his maiden in his second start nearly four years ago. A 7-year-old son of Speightstown with 28 starts on his résumé, Comedy Town really came into his own during the second half of his 2024 campaign when registering three consecutive victories locally, including both the six-furlong Smile Sprint and seven-furlong Benny the Bull.
Primarily a turf and synthetic-track specialist early in his career, Comedy Town has been idle since finishing third behind Federal Judge and Nakatomi in the Grade 2 Phoenix on Oct. 4 at Keeneland. That pair came out of the race to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Comedy Town is owned by his trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., in partnership with Ten Twenty Racing.
“We freshened him up a bit after the race at Keeneland with the intention of running him back in the Mr. Prospector” – a Grade 3 on Dec. 28 – “but he got sick, we had to pass the race, and this was the next option to come back in,” Joseph explained. “He’s been away a while and you never know how older horses like this will come back sometimes. But we had him ready for the Mr. Prospector and have had a chance since then to get a couple more works into him, so fitness shouldn’t be an issue. I expect he should run fine.”
Comedy Town is one of three horses Joseph entered in the Sunshine Sprint, along with Classify and Mish, who bounced back from a horrific effort behind White Abarrio in a Nov. 22 allowance to win a similarly conditioned race going six furlongs in easy fashion, by 3 1/2 lengths, three weeks later. Mish won a restricted stakes for Florida-breds by nearly the same margin earlier in the year at Tampa Bay Downs.
Damon’s Mound was a two-time Grade 2 winner with trainer Michelle Lovell at 2 and 3 but has not started since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita in December 2023. The son of Girvin was subsequently transferred to trainer Bill Mott to resume his career and will be taking on Florida-breds for the first time Saturday.
“We’ve been getting him ready for the past year,” Mott said. “He’s a neat horse to be around. I really like him.”
Damon’s Mound has had seven works, two at the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga and five more at Payson Park, prepping for his return, including a bullet five-eighths from the gate in 1:02 at Payson on Jan. 7.
Florida-bred stakes winners Gatsby, who won this event two years ago, Loco Abarrio, and Pure Class, as well as Banded Rocket round out the lineup.
Sunshine Turf
The Sunshine Turf lured a field of nine, led by Lord Eddard Stark, who upset the two-mile Allen Jerkens Handicap at odds of 60-1 in his last start, and the Mark Casse-trained duo of the up-and-coming Victory Achieved and stakes winner Boppy O.
Lord Eddard Stark rallied from far back to register a stunning half-length decision in the Allen Jerkens, recording just his second win in nine starts in 2024. He had finished a distant sixth in the Turf Classic at Tampa Bay Downs in his only other try with Florida-breds during the campaign.
Victory Achieved brings a three-race winning streak into his stakes debut, each of those victories coming over the synthetic track at Woodbine at distances ranging from 6 1/2 to seven furlongs. The Sunshine Turf marks not only his first outing against statebreds but his first around two turns as well.
Boppy O finished fifth in the 2024 edition of the Sunshine Turf. He started just three more times the remainder of the season, finishing second on each of those occasions.
The improving Adios Cole, off a career-best performance in his 3-year-old finale at Tampa Bay Downs, Ninja Star, Prevent, Treasure King, If Not for Luck, and Anamnestic complete the lineup.
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