HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher was visiting his troops at the Palm Beach Downs training center earlier this week, which can mean only one thing. The opening of the Gulfstream Championship meeting is just around the corner.
But even before the Championship session opens on Nov. 28, Pletcher figures to make his presence felt on the local front. A case in point is Friday’s $61,000 main event which features the return of his promising 3-year-old Cardinale, who should go postward a short-priced favorite in the allowance event carded at one mile on the main track.
Cardinale will be getting some significant class relief in comparison to his previous start nine months earlier when he faced the likes of recent Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone and Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Catching Freedom in the Grade 2 Risen Star at the Fair Grounds in February. Cardinale, a Stonestreet homebred, finished 11th after prompting the early pace in his stakes debut after having opened his career with a six-furlong maiden win and second-place finish going two turns under allowance conditions here last winter.
“He came back kind of tired and banged up, though nothing specific, after the Risen Star,” Pletcher recalled. “We breezed him back several weeks later and he didn’t breeze as well coming out of the race as he had going into it, so we just sent him back to Stonestreet in Ocala for some time off.”
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Pletcher said Cardinale has trained very well since rejoining his stable this summer at Saratoga.
“Right now the focus is on having a good comeback with him,” said Pletcher. “This looks like a good spot to bring him back and hopefully build off moving down the road.”
Cardinale will break from the rail under Edgard Zayas, who rode the son of Speightstown in his first two career starts.
Cardinale will face seven rivals, including Power Humor and Havildar, who finished second and third, respectively, under similar conditions behind the even-money Holiday Pay four weeks earlier. Power Humor contested the pace much of the way with Holiday Pay before proving no match through the final furlong. Havildar finished a neck farther back after stalking the leaders and racing a bit wide into the stretch.
Mugatu, one of a trio of 3-year-olds in the field along with Cardinale and Divo d’Oro, is also entered, along with Morgan Point, Tshiebwe, and Navy Cross.
The Friday card also includes a $48,000 allowance dash going seven furlongs over the main track for Florida-bred fillies and mares. R Disaster is expected to be a prohibitive favorite coming off a pair of popular and one-sided victories that including a wire-to-wire, 2 1/4-length decision against open $80,000 conditioned-claiming opposition on Sept. 13 at Churchill Downs.
Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., R Disaster will likely face her stiffest competition from Aless Queen, who has also been idle since early September when finishing a tiring fourth in a super key statebred allowance event from which the top three finishers all returned to capture their next starts. A more experienced Aless Queen easily defeated R Disaster by 8 1/2 lengths when the pair met for the first time under maiden conditions going seven furlongs here July 20.
Pletcher said he will be concentrating mostly on maiden and allowance races over the next several weeks with his first stakes activity during the Championship meet likely to be with Six Minus in the two-mile Allen Jerkens on Dec. 7. He said he’s also looking at the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale on turf Dec. 21 for Major Dude and Grand Sonata, along with the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday the same day for Tuscan Sky, as possible preps for the Pegasus Turf and Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 25.
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Pletcher said the Pegasus World Cup could be in play for Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up and potential 3-year-old champion Fierceness, who registered a 13 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby over this track last spring.
“I’ll get together with Mike [Repole] next week and map out a plan moving forward,” said Pletcher. “It just depends whether we want to give him a freshening or not while possibly looking forward to races like the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup early next season.”
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